
Class 

Book 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 






The First Church in Exeter, 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



1 638-1 888 1698-1898. 



EXETER: 

PRINTED FOR THE PARISH. 

1898. 



2nd CC 

/ JAN 1899 



The First Church in Exeter, 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



1 638-1 888 1 698- 1 898. 




%Jo^Jt^r \fks^ 






EXETER: 
Christmas, 1898. 

L- 






164 

Copyright, 1898. 
BY JOHN TAYLOR PERRY. 




»* tf V\CE Of %§* 

6-1899 



The News-Letter Press. 
Exeter, N. H. 



v . - ii. eta 



PREFACE. 



OX the 13th and 14th of November, tSoS, the First Church and 
Parish in Exeter celebrated the two hundredth anniversary of 
the reorganization of the church, and the one hundredth of the 
house of worship still in use. The true bicentennial dates, and the 
ones originally designed for observance, were October 2nd and 3rd, 
nearly or quite corresponding with the old style reckoning of the 
proceedings in September, 1698. A delay of about six weeks was 
rendered necessary by extensive repairs and improvements on the 
church building. 

The present volume includes, besides a brief account of the 
general exercises, first a sermon delivered June 3, 1888, by the late 
Rev. Swift Byington, then pastor, as the church's contribution to 
the quadro-millennial celebration of the town, held on June 7th. 
The discourse was much appreciated at the time of its delivery, and 
as it dwells almost exclusively on the first organized church and its 
founder, John Wheelwright, may be regarded as a suitable introduc- 
tion to the demonstrations ten years later. Mr. Byington, it will 
be observed, merely repeats the ancient historical statements, without 
submitting them to a critical analysis. He denies, however, that 
there is satisfactory evidence of the claim that the church of 1638 
died, saying the evidence for that assertion is too negative. His 
discourse is in itself an assertion of 250 years of existence for our 
church. 

Secondly, the sermon, delivered November 13 th last by the present 
pastor, the Rev. Wilbert L. Anderson, in its subject, "New England 
Theology as Related to Life and Character," gives to the local ob- 
servances a more general bearing, and will enable persons, not 
familiar with the past, better to appreciate the spiritual conflicts of 
our ancestors. 

Thirdly, the address by the Rev. Burton W. Lockhart, D. D., of 
Manchester, with which the celebration closed, in its eloquent 



4 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

portrayal of the "Relations of the Church to the Modern World," 
supplies practical enforcements to the lessons made prominent in a 
backward look over more than two centuries of conflict and con- 
quest. 

Fourthly, the historical paper, while tracing the general progress 
of the church during 260 years, has for its most important features, 
first the continuity and virtual identity of the first organized church 
with its successor. Secondly, a detailed history of the great White- 
fieldian secession of 1743, an event, which, although neither side 
was faultless, was really a heavy blow struck at the union of church 
and state. 

In conclusion it is hoped that the present publication may in- 
duce other churches not only to study their past, but to keep their 
records with systematic care. Through neglect, many important 
events, when not totally forgotten, are only matters of confused 
tradition. Through carelessness many church and parish books 
have fallen into private hands, only to be lost. Such things were 
perhaps unavoidable a hundred years ago, but it will be unpardon- 
able if they are repeated in the twentieth century. 

W. L. Anderson, 
J. T. Perry, 
G. A. Wentworth, 
C. H. Knight, 
Sperry French, 

Publication Committee. 



QUADRO-MILLKXXIAL SERMON. 

Delivered June 3, 1888. 
By the Rev. Swift Byixgton. 



"Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations; ask 
thy father, and he will show thee, thy elders, and they will tell thee, for the 
Lord's portion is this people. He found them in a desert land, in a waste 
howling wilderness; He led them about, and He instructed them. He kept 
them as the apple of his eye." — Deuteronomy, 32nd Chapter, yth, gth and 
loth Verses. 

THE celebration of the 250th anniversary of the planting of the 
town of Exeter, in which the planting of the Congregational 
church was neglected, would be like a play of Hamlet with Hamlet 
left out ; it would be a neglecting of the prominent reason for which 
New England was settled. Exeter was a religious settlement as 
truly as Plymouth was. If the Pilgrims were forced by their stead- 
fast religious convictions to find a new home at Plymouth, so was 
John Wheelwright forced by his steadfast convictions to plant the 
town of Exeter, and at the same time, the Eirst church, of which 
you are the representatives. 

And, first, of some of the circumstances which led to the founding 
of this town and church, I wish to speak. Eight or ten years after 
the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, who were persons of 
humble position and small possessions, a new colony of Puritans 
landed at Salem and established themselves, more ambitious than 
the Pilgrims at Plymouth, many of them persons of education and 
wealth, bent on founding a commonwealth in the wilderness in 
which Puritan conceptions of religion should be all controlling. 

This colony soon came to include Charlestown and Boston and the 
regions adjacent, under the name of Massachusetts Bay. They re- 
ceived constant accessions from the Mother Country, grew and 
prospered. After John Endicott, the first governor of the Salem 
Colony, came Gov. John Winthrop, of the Boston Colony. John 



6 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

Cotton, of the church in Boston, was then a prominent minister in 
the colony. It is said that the town is the social and political 
unit in New England, upon which our commonwealth rests ; 
but at the beginning, the congregation, not the town, was the 
basis upon which the fabric rested. No one could vote unless he 
was a communicant, so that the town meeting was nothing but a 
church meeting and the deference to the clergy was unbounded, 
and not only the religious but the social and political authority was 
in the hands of the clergy. It seems as if the Puritans had certainly 
attained their object, a religious commonwealth. The clergy were 
consulted by the governor on every important question which arose, 
and their counsel was greatly heeded. Every inhabitant was 
obliged to attend the services of the Lord's day, under penalty of 
fine or imprisonment. The church and state were one ; the gov- 
ernment subservient to the clergy, who were a power behind the 
throne ; there were several sermons on Sunday and several often 
during the week, that the masses of the people might be kept in a 
submissive spirit, that there might be no departure in thought or 
opinion from Puritan authority, and that any deviation from or 
opposition to their standards, might be at once frowned upon and 
crushed. 

In 1636, among other Puritans, came another John, John Wheel- 
wright, to enjoy the privileges and liberties of Massachusetts Bay. 
He was about 44 years of age and had been in the ministry eight or 
ten years, in England. In Gov. Bell's memoirs of Wheelwright, I 
read that he was a fellow collegian in England with Oliver Crom- 
well at the University of Cambridge, which he entered at 18 years 
of age, graduating in 16 14. "I remember," says the Lord Protector 
Cromwell, "when I was more afraid of meeting Wheelwright at foot- 
ball than I have since been of meeting an army in the field, for I 
was infallibly sure of being tripped by him." Cotton Mather said 
he had heard that "when Wheelwright was a young spark at the Uni- 
versity he was noted for a more than ordinary stroke at wrestling." 
From this it may be gathered, adds Gov. Bell, "that young Wheel- 
wright was of vigorous bodily constitution, addicted to athletic 
exercises, and not lacking in spirit or resolution." He was a lead- 
ing man in the Puritan party in England. He was instrumental 



SERMON BY THE LATE REV. SWIFT BYINGTON. 7 

in the conversion of many souls and was highly esteemed ; but 
perhaps owing to his Puritan views, which were strongly opposed to 
the Church of England, he lost his parish, and in April, 1636, sailed 
for New England. He came not wholly a stranger, for he was ac- 
quainted with Rev. John Cotton, the minister of the Puritan church 
in Boston, and a man of leading influence there. 

Some of the members of the Boston church wished Wheelwright 
to be settled as a second teacher over that church, but this was op- 
posed by ex-Gov. Winthrop, on the ground that Wheelwright was not 
sound in doctrine. Although Sir Henry Vane (now governor), Win- 
throp's rival, defended him, it was useless, and the friends of Wheel- 
wright formed a church at what is now Quincy, Mass., and in Oc- 
tober, 1636, settled Wheelwright as their pastor at the age of 44. 
The next January he preached a sermon in Boston on Fast day 
which gave great offence to ex-Gov. Winthrop and his friends and 
at length after a long controversy and many trials in civil and eccle- 
siastical courts, at which Wheelwright took the ground that he had 
preached nothing but the truth, and that he was not responsible for 
the application which they chose to make of it, he was sentenced to 
be disfranchised and banished. This was in November, 1637. He 
was given fourteen days to leave. Then they turned to his advocates 
and followers, and served many of them in like manner. Wheel- 
wright left Boston, probably in a coasting vessel of John Clark's, 
(a sympathizer) for the region of Piscataqua river, perhaps Dover 
Point, or Strawberry Point, where were already settlements of fish- 
ermen, and as soon as the deep snow permitted, came to Squam- 
scot in the spring of 1638, the site of what is now Exeter. In 
April, 1638, he secured by purchase, or otherwise, an extensive tract 
of land at Squamscot Falls, embracing what is now Exeter and 
several adjacent towns, and was now ready to be followed by his 
friends and followers, who were eager to share his fortunes and plant 
a new colony in the wilderness. He was soon surrounded by a 
company of followers large enough to insure the success of his 
project. The names of more than thirty men appear in the first 
assignment of land. As soon as some rude sort of shelter had been 
provided, their families followed, and at once measures were taken 
to organize a church. A place of worship forty feet square was built 



8 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

of logs on what was called Meeting-house hill in the northern part 
of this village, and Wheelwright and eight others applied to the 
Boston church for dismission to the church at Exeter, which was 
granted, according to the records of the First church, Boston, on the 
6th of the nth month, 1638, so that, as we see, this town and this 
First church of Exeter were planted at about the same time in 1638, 
250 years ago. 

Gov. Bell, in his memoir of Wheelwright, speaks of him as a 
minister of remarkable learning, power and piety. Mr. Adams, of 
Quincy, says he was a personal friend of Cromwell and Sir Henry 
Vane, with a mind vigorous and masculine, and a courage stern and 
determined even above the Puritan standard of resolution and 
daring. He spoke the truth that was in him, and could be neither 
intimidated nor cajoled. In his Fast day sermon, which was 
preached in Boston, he probably charged upon the Puritan authori- 
ties selfrighteousness or Pharisaism, or they took it so, which 
brought on the trouble which resulted in his banishment, though 
Rev. John Cotton, the minister of the Boston church, declared that 
"Brother Wheelwright's doctrine was according to God, wholly and 
altogether." Winthrop advanced the theory that, "The Corpora- 
tion of Massachusetts, having bought its land, held it as though it 
were a private estate, and might exclude whom they pleased there- 
from." Gov. Vane left for England, Winthrop was re-elected 
governor in Vane's place, and Wheelwright was left to the vengeance 
of Winthrop and the others whom he had offended. So the party 
of Wheelwright was crushed, the bold were exiled, the timid were 
terrified, and the power of the Puritan majority was absolute in the 
land for forty years. 

The Rev. Thomas Robbins, who has written a valuable history 
of the first planters of New England, says, "The people who made 
the settlement in Exeter, in 1638, were mostly from Boston. 
Having been regularly dismissed from the church in that town, 
they immediately united in a church relation on the principles of 
their mother church in Boston. As they judged themselves to be 
without the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, they formed themselves 
into a body politic, chose rulers and assistants, who were sworn to 
the proper execution of their respective offices, and a correspond- 



SERMON BY THE LATE REV. SWIFT BYINGTON. 9 

ing oath of obedience was taken by the people. In this political 
compact, is seen an instance of civil government in its simplest. 
purest form. These settlements for many years lived peaceably 
with the natives, and from the great advantages for fishery were not 
exposed to the evils of famine. : ' 

Gov. Bell, in his memoir of Wheelwright, says, "Under this 
voluntary system of government the settlement of Exeter flourished 
ami took permanent root. Its members increased; the land was 
subject to the plow ; grist-mills were set in motion by the waters of 
the falls ; and good order seems to have prevailed in a degree un- 
usual in a frontier hamlet." In regard to Wheelwright and his 
church all I can find is this, "Wheelwright pursued the even tenor 
of his ways, as pastor of the little church, making his presence felt 
in every matter of interest to his people and winning each succes- 
sive year, a greater share of their confidence and attachment. The 
cause of his leaving Exeter, after about four years of ministry, was 
the extension of the jurisdiction of Massachusetts to include 
Hampton, Dover, Portsmouth and Exeter. Massachusetts had not 
hesitated to annoy him by manifestations of hostility. These little 
colonies felt their weakness in case of an attack by enemies, and, in 
1641, applied to Massachusetts to be under her jurisdiction and 
protection." Mr. Nathaniel Shute has said they were moved to 
this by the hostile action of the Indians. Mr. Thomas Robbins 
says, "They were exposed to the intrusion of vagrants and outlaws 
from the Massachusetts Colonies, to a constant influx of immigrants 
and of demagogues invited by their weakness," difficulties from 
which they were not strong enough to rid themselves. It was in 
1642 or 3 that they were received and became a part of the 
Colony of Massachusetts Bay. Wheelwright left for Wells, Me., 
early in 1643, taking the best part of his church with him. After 
about four years, having made peace with Massachusetts, he preached 
in Hampton, N. H., and was afterwards on his return from a long 
visit to England, settled at Salisbury, Mass., at the age of 70, and 
died there at the age of 87, of apoplexy, still vigorous in body and 
mind until the fatal stroke. There his remains are buried, and in 
the words of another : "No chiselled monument marks the spot, 
nor is any needed to perpetuate the memory of the man." 



10 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

After the removal of Wheelwright to Wells, Me., in 1643, rne 
church of Exeter was probably broken up and prostrate as a regular, 
formal organization. This irregular state of things continued for 
seven years. Several ministers were called, but declined. At last, 
in May, 1650, it was unanimously agreed that Rev. Samuel Dudley 
(a son of Gov. Thomas Dudley, says Rev. John Smith, the eighth 
minister of this church,) "is forthwith, as soon as comfortable sub- 
sistence can be made by the town for him and his family, in a 
house purchased of Mr. Wheelwright, the said Dudley is to come 
and inhabit Exeter and to' be a minister of God's word unto us, 
until such time as God shall be pleased to make a way for the 
gathering of a church, and then to be ordained our pastor or 
teacher, according to the ordinance of God." It is on the basis of 
those words wholly, that it is supposed there was a break in the 
continuity of this church from 1638, and so it is said that the 
present First church of Exeter properly dates from its organization 
in 1698, sixty years after Wheelwright planted it. (I think the 
evidence is too negative to prove this conclusively.) Mr. Dudley 
entered at once upon the pastorate, with a salary of forty pounds 
English money, together with the Wheelwright house and a yard 
and garden fenced in. A new meeting-house was built in 1652, 
about the size of the former one and not far from it. This took 
the place of Wheelwright's primitive log meeting-house and was 
used as a place of public worship for more than forty years. In 
1656, Mr. Dudley was called to Portsmouth, which strained his 
people up to raise his salary to fifty pounds. The Wheelwright 
property was fully confirmed to Mr. Dudley, and it was provided 
that the selectmen of the town should yearly gather up the said sum 
of fifty pounds, as his salary, and in case they should fail to do so 
they should be answerable to the town for their default, and should 
make up what they failed to collect out of their own pockets. At 
this time every inhabitant was compelled by law to pay the 
minister's tax as much as any other. 

In March, 1668, at a town meeting, it was ordered that Lieuten- 
ant Hall be empowered to arrest and sue any that belong to the 
town that refuse to pay the rate of the minister, and in 1671 it was 
voted that Mr. Dudley was to gather up his rate himself and to re- 



SERMON BY THE LATE REV. SWIFT BYINGTON. I I 

ceive sixty pounds instead of fifty as heretofore, and that the select- 
men were to lay the tax, and if any should refuse to pay, Mr. 
Dudley should get it by the constable. This was soon followed by 
his withdrawing from his charge, (though he occasionally held 
religious services in his own house) and in five years, in 1676, the 
following order was passed the court, sitting at Hampton : "The 
town of Exeter being presented for letting their meeting-house lie 
open and common for cattle to go into, this court doth order that 
the selectmen of Exeter do take effectual care that the said house 
be cleaned, be made clean enough for Christians to meet in, and 
the doors hung and kept shut, under penalty of five pounds, and 
that for the time to come they keep the said house right and 
suitable for such a place, upon a like penalty." Mr. Dudley died 
in Kxeter in 1683, at the age of 77 years. He seems to have been 
as lacking in force as Mr. Wheelwright was full of it, and the church 
can not be said to have prospered under his ministry. Yet he was 
an honest and good man, connected by blood and by marriage 
with some of the principal men in Massachusetts, and was a busy 
and faithful man according to his ability. (But he had fearfully 
poor material to work on.) 

From this time for fifteen years, Exeter had no settled ministry. 
A Mr. Cotton and a Mr. Wentworth preached as temporary supplies, 
during this period, and some others whose names are not preserved. 
Probably the church as a body, and the meeting house, were badly 
dilapidated. Finally, in 1697, a new meeting-house was built "of 
no mean proportions" near where this house now stands, with doors 
at the East and West ends, the pulpit on the North side, pews 
around the sides, and in the center the space doubtless occupied by 
benches. The church was reorganized in September, 1698, with 
Rev. John Clark pastor, installed with a confession of faith and 
covenant which we now have, and with 26 members. This organi- 
zation has been maintained unbroken to the present day. 

Thus I have set down concisely and with many necessary omis- 
sions for your patience sake, so far as I could find material, the 
history of the first sixty years of this old church. Very few records 
of this period have been preserved. The history of the nearly two 
hundred subsequent years from 1698 can be more readily traced, 



12 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

though for much of the time the records of this church were poorly 
kept, and some small part of them have been burned. 

As we look back upon the trials and sufferings of our fathers, we 
are sensibly evident of the gratitude we owe to the goodness of God 
in keeping us as a church, and in giving us the measure of strength 
and prosperity which we now enjoy. The Lord's portion to his 
people. We have all the religious liberty that we deserve. May 
God keep as the apple of his eye these churches and this town of 
Exeter, making them more than ever before the glory of our com- 
monwealth, laborers together with Him in all that constitutes the 
true welfare of man. 



THE BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION, 



TI I E figure 8 holds an important place in the annals of the 
First Church and Parish. Organized in 163S, the church 
was reorganized in 1698. In 17S8 those who had seceded from it 
to form the Second Church, for the first time since 1743 communed 
with their former brethen at the invitation of Deacon Brooks of the 
First Church. In 179S the present house of worship was built and 
occupied. In 183S its interior was remodelled. In 188S the 
quarter-millennial of church and parish, as well as that of the town, 
was celebrated, and in 1898 two days were devoted to the com- 
memoration of events whose interest cannot be overrated. 

The first step toward this latest — it is to be trusted not last cele- 
bration, was taken at the annual meeting of the church, December 
31, 1897. The church committee was there instructed to devise a 
plan of commemoration and report the same for the approval of 
the church. 

At the annual meeting of the parish, April 4, 1898, a committee 
was appointed to cooperate with the church committee in arranging 
a programme. 

Little was done unless in the way of informal conference and 
suggestion until May, when meetings were held and committees 
were appointed to provide for the various features of the occasion. 
The reorganization of 1698 was effected late in September, but the 
change of styles adopted in 1752 threw the dates ten days forward. 
Hence Sunday, October 2, and Monday, October 3, were the dates 
selected as near equivalents of the events commemorated. It now 
became very apparent to all that the interior condition of the 
church building was not such as ought to exist during festivities of 
unusual importance, at which many strangers were to be present. 
Accordingly a building committee, consisting of Messrs. W. Bur- 
lingame, W. H. C. Follansby and A. T. Dudley, was appointed. 
This committee, ably seconded by the pastor, speedily raised the 



14 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

funds required, approximately $2,500, and repairs and improve- 
ments were begun, which were not completed until very near 
November 13 and 14, the days to which the anniversary had neces- 
sarily been postponed. The principal changes were the substitution 
of new furnaces for the old, and placing them in the cellar instead 
of on the first floor. This insured the perfect warming of the lower 
story as well as of the auditorium on the second floor. It also gave 
space for a toilet room for women and for the enlargement of the 
kitchen. The vestibule at the front entrance received a floor of 
hard pine, and was much improved by the removal of an unsightly 
staircase leading to the upper tower. The two lecture rooms were 
provided with new and handsome gas fixtures, and by cutting 
double doors can be made virtually one apartment. The staircases 
have substituted graceful balusters for their old time board sides 
and have been made lighter by the removal of headers that obscur- 
ed part of the windows. New and wider doors were placed at the 
entrances to the auditorium, which has also received new windows, 
a new carpet and new pew cushions, and which has been improved 
by the removal of the back pews to provide a transverse aisle. The 
wood work and lecture room ceilings have been tastefully painted 
in soft colors, and noise on the stairs prevented by rubber matting. 
All that was desirable in the church of 1838 has been preserved, 
while modern improvements have replaced clumsy and obsolete 
features. The result has pleased and surprised all, and those who 
gave so readily and generously have the satisfaction of knowing that 
their money was wisely used. 

SUNDAY. 

The services on Sunday morning, November 13, were very largely 
attended, many members of other churches being present. The 
building had been tastefully decorated — outside, over the doors, 
with a shield inscribed "First Church, 1638, 1798, 1898." The 
auditorium was profusely adorned with the national colors, with 
another dated shield over the pulpit, with streamers and great pro- 
fusion of flowers, potted plants and palms. Among the flowers was 
a vase of beautiful chrysanthemums, sent with "loving greetings of 
Phillips Church." Music was furnished by the regular choir. The 



THE BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. I 5 

voluntary and the doxology were followed with an anthem by the 
choir, "Break forth into joy." The responsive readings were from 
Psalms 121 and 122. The choir followed with a Gloria, and 
Romans 8 : 28-39 was tnen rea d by the pastor, the Rev. Wilbert L. 
Anderson. The opening prayer was made by his only living pred- 
ecessor, the Rev. John O. Barrows, of Stonington, Conn. At his 
close Mr. Lamson and Miss Tilton sang a duet, "Jesus, Lover of 
My Soul," and the choir then sang the hymn, "Jesus shall reign 
where'er the sun." The sermon by the pastor will be found else- 
where in our pages. He closed with a prayer, after which the choir 
sang "O God, our help in ages past," and Mr. Barrows pronounced 
the benediction. 

At 3 p. M. the Communion was administered by Messrs. Ander- 
son and Barrows. Mr. Street offered prayer and J Mr. Bourne read 
the third chapter of Ephesians. Many of their people were also 
present as communicants. Mr. Anderson distributed the bread 
and Mr. Barrows the wine, the cups for the latter being the oldest 
owned by the church and dating back to the time of the reorgani- 
zation and the first decade of the eighteenth century. Mr. Barrows, 
in some very sympathetic remarks, paid tribute to Mrs. Abner 
Merrill, Mrs. George Gardner, Mrs. William G. Perry, Mrs. Joanna 
Tilton and other good women he had known during his pastorate, 
who have since passed to their reward. 

A very large Christian Endeavor meeting was held in the even- 
ing, over which Mr. A. T. Dudley presided and at which Mr. Perley 
Gardner read an excellent paper. The Endeavorers of the daugh- 
ter church were present in a body. 

MONDAY. 

On Monday afternoon Mr. J. T. Perry read extracts from his 
historical paper, after Scripture reading by the Rev. E. G. Smith, 
of Epping, and prayer by the Rev. George Lewis, of South Berwick, 
Me., and music by the choir. The document will be found in full 
on subsequent pages. At the close of this service the old silver 
service and some curios belonging to the church were exhibited. 
Also a fragment of the old bell cast by Paul Revere, broken about 
twenty years ago and then sold to the Baptist church to be recast 



1 6 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

with its own bell. The piece bears the date of its construction, 
1800, and was presented by Deacon Henry C. Moses of the Baptist 
church with a silver plate, inscribed, " Piece of the Old Town Bell, 
cast by Paul Revere of Revolutionary Fame, vouched for and pre- 
sented by Henry C. Moses, Exeter, N. H." This token of good 
will was gratefully received and awakened much interest. 

At 5 o'clock supper was served in the lecture room, the pastor 
presiding and the venerable Dr. Robie, forty-six years pastor at 
Greenland, asking the blessing. The Rev. Mr. Barrows was the 
first speaker called on, and paid loving tribute to the men of his 
church, as he had done to the women on Sunday, and also referred 
with respect to the prominent citizens of the town, who were then 
living. Of his own people he dwelt on his classmate, the late 
Joseph W. Gale, Superintendent of the Sunday School, Deacon W. 
L. Gooch and Mr. Abner Merrill and Dr. William Perry, the last 
named of whom turned his attention to missionary work. 

The Rev. J. H. Fitts, of Newfields, spoke for the daughter 
churches — Newmarket (now Newfields), Epping and Brentwood. 
He mentioned that Wheelwright spent the winter of 1637-38 at 
Newmarket with Edward Hilton while on his way to Exeter, and 
showed that the churches at Newmarket and Brentwood had each 
presented Exeter with a grand-daughter ; that of Brentwood being 
at Fremont. He eulogized the parish as the sustainer of the church. 
Rev. John A. Ross, at Hampton, of whose ancient church Wheel- 
wright was third pastor, quoted a sentence from one of his sermons 
as applicable to the present time as to his own day. Dr. George 
E. Hall, of Dover, was somewhat satirical, but very sensible and 
practical in his remarks. He greeted his entertainers as " fellow 
ancients;" spoke of the old church at Dover and the ancient 
church of Exeter, and while complimenting the pluck of the his- 
torian in claiming for Exeter's church priority over that of Dover, 
said it was safer to controvert Dr. Quint in heaven than Dr. Quint 
on earth. He flatly opposed Mr. Fitts's exaltation of the parish 
over the church. The Rev. George E. Street paid glowing tribute 
to the Rev. Swift Byington, and expressed the deep affection 
of his own heart and that of his church, declaring that he would 
srieve no more at its downfall than at that of the mother. 



THE BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. \J 

Dr. Robie, of Greenland, said that Gladstone had not spoken 
the full truth in declaring that the church rested on the rock of the 
Scriptures. This is not quite correct. Its foundation is Jesus 
Christ, the same yesterday, to-day and forever. The Hon. Joseph 
B. Walker, of Concord, told an amusing story of the advice of 
Dr. Soule to him when he entered the Academy in 1838. Asking 
a question regarding a difficulty, he was told to grasp the bull by 
the horns. This is the safest and wisest course and the gist of 
Exeter teaching. 

Principal H. P. Amen of the Phillips Exeter Academy was the 
last speaker. He told how much an Exeter church had done for 
him when he came here a stranger boy, and he earnestly hoped the 
First church would do the same for many generations of Academy 
boys. 

A number of letters had been received, but there was not time to 
read them, but one telegram was so specially interesting that Mr. 
Anderson read it. The first signer is the well known physician of 
Melrose, the second a Boston lawyer, who lives in Lynn, and the 
third a prominent citizen of Andover, who is likewise a lawyer. 

The lineal descendants of Rev. John Odlin living in and around Boston send 
their hearty congratulations to Exeter's historic church on its 260th anniver- 
sary. 

Charles C. Qui. in. 
I \mf.s E. Odlin. 
William Odlin. 

At 7.30 p. M. the church was crowded by an expectant audience, 
including many persons from neighboring towns besides the invited 
guests of the occasion. The Rev. B. W. Eockhart's address is given 
entire in this volume, and hence we will only say that it held the 
close attention of all who listened to it, and was warmly praised by 
every one. Seated with the speaker were Messrs. Anderson and 
Barrows, Rev. Dr. George E. Hall and Rev. H. H. Colburn, of 
Brentwood. The latter read the Scriptural selection, Isaiah 1 1 , 
and the opening prayer was made by Dr. Hall. This was followed 
by the hymn, "Hail to the Lord's Annointed." The voluntary 
had been followed by "Hear our Prayer," a trio for soprano, alto 



1 8 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

and bass, and after the Scripture reading Miss Ellis was heard in a 
pleasing solo. 

The service closed with prayer by the pastor, Coronation by the 
choir and the benediction by Mr. Barrows. From first to last the 
commemoration was a great success, and no feature of the pro- 
gramme failed of carrying out its designed object. A number of the 
younger participants may live until 1938, when Exeter and the 
church can together celebrate their 300th anniversary. 



THE PASTORAL SUCCESSION. 

John Wheelwright, 1638 — 

Samuel Dudley, 1650 — 

John Ci.ark, 1698 — 

John Odlin, 1706 — 

woodbridge odlin, 1 743 — 

Isaac Mansfield, 1776 — 

W 11 1 ,iAM F. Rowland, 1790 — 

John Smith, 1829 — 

William Williams, 1838 — 

Joy II. Fairchild, 1843 — 

Roswell D. Hitchcock, 1845— 

William D. Hitchcock, 1853 — 

Nathaniel Lasell, 1856 — 

Ei.ias Nason, i860 — 

*John O. Barrows, 1866 — 

Swift Byington, 1871 — 

WlLBERT L. Anderson, 1894 — 



643 
683 

705 
754 
776 
787 
828 



844 
852 
854 
859 
S65 
869 
893 



* Mr. Barrows is the only survivor of Mr. Anderson's sixteen predecessors. 



ANNIVERSARY SERMON. 

Delivered November 13, 1S98. 

By the Rev. Wilbert L. Anderson. 



New England Theology as Related to Life and Character. 

" Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love 
unto all the Saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you 
in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, 
may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of 
him; the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know 
what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheri- 
tance in the Saints." — Ephesians /:/j-/S. 

ON this anniversary it is well for us not only to review our 
local history, but also to refresh our understanding of the in- 
fluences under which this history took form. Among the forces 
that have entered into the development of the institutions and 
shaped the character of New England, the first place must be ac- 
corded to theological ideas. An appropriate theme for this occa- 
sion, therefore, is New England theology as related to life and 
character. 

Exeter, it is true, is not in Massachusetts ; but when has it ever 
been settled that Massachusetts is the synonym of New England? 
Ideas and influences heed no custom-house on state borders. The 
abiding traits of New England are found to-day in rural communi- 
ties rather than in cities. If we would look upon our contemporary 
ancestors we must go to the farms and villages among the hills 
rather than to Boston and to Hartford. If we were the smallest 
community in New- Hampshire, hidden in some valley of the moun- 
tains, it would be our right to claim a part in the New England 
inheritance. 

Nor is it necessary to claim peculiar intercourse with Massachu- 
setts. We ought, nevertheless, to concede that in early times 



20 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

Boston was the center and that influences radiating thence dimin- 
ished in strength with the distance and with the infrequency of 
intercourse. By either of these tests Exeter is as much a part of 
historic New England as could be desired. 

We are so near Boston that when this country was still a wilder- 
ness Wheelwright and his associates found this locality the nearest 
convenient refuge. Exeter is, perhaps, the earliest instance of the 
suburban movement that still testifies to the centrifugal forces 
radiating from the metropolis. 

We have been in the habit of claiming that New Hampshire men 
have contributed largely to the making of Massachusetts ; and 
there must be recognized a special communion between that which 
is made and its maker. Always there comes back along the lines 
of emigration the story of life in the new home. If New Hamp- 
shire has given of her best to Massachusetts, Massachusetts has 
made full recompense through the clearing house in which historic 
balances are adjusted. 

But not to dwell upon this, during the seventeenth century this 
church had for its pastor for thirty-three years the son of the famous 
Gov. Dudley, one of the two great leaders in Massachusetts Bay 
during the earliest period. Of the eighteenth century seventy years 
were included in the long pastorates of the two Odlins, men who 
were marked representatives of the New England spirit. 

I shall assume without further justification of the claim that the 
prevalent theological conceptions of New England formed the lives 
and the characters of the men and the women whom we honor to- 
day. These beliefs, of which 1 shall speak, have been held here ; 
these lives have been lived here. While, then, we encourage our- 
selves with the wider outlook, discerning of what great movements 
we are a part, we feel the personal interest in what our own minis- 
ters have taught the successive generations that have worshiped in 
this place. 

The name, New England theology, properly designates what is 
distinctive of religious thought in this part of the world. In this 
narrower sense it denotes the series of doctrines that slowly modified 
the ideas of the earlier time. In the prophetic succession are in- 
cluded Jonathan Edwards, peer of the profoundest philosophers 



SERMON BY THE REV. WILBERT L. ANDERSON. 21 

and incomparable among mystics ; Joseph Bellamy, the eloquent 
preacher; Samuel Hopkins, warmest hearted of dogmatists; 
Nathaniel Emmons, absorbed student and inspiring teacher; the 
younger Edwards ; Pres. Dwight, the great expounder of the faith ; 
Dr. N. W. Taylor and Prof. Park, who bridged the gulf and estab- 
lished communication with the modern world. Such men, follow- 
ing one another, each giving voluminous and monumental expres- 
sion to the truth reshaped in his own thought, are sufficient to give 
luster to any country. 

This New England theology is the Puritan theology, revitalized 
and adapted to new demands of the mind and heart. So direct is 
this derivation that it is proper to call all the religious thinking from 
the settlement of the colonies the theology of New England for the 
purposes of our discussion. 

I. 

It is important that we understand, first of all, tint the theology 
of New England is in the closest and most vital historical connec- 
tions. It i> a form of the stirring belief that was everywhere 
diffused in the heroic days of the Reformation. A single term 
brings it clearly to mind : we call it Calvinism. The great scholar 
and statesman of Geneva did not originate this type of faith. 
Iaither held it with less discrimination and more of enthusiasm, 
reaching his mature convictions while Calvin was still at school. 
And Luther found this mode of conceiving God and duty the 
traditional faith of the church. A thousand years before, Augustine 
had lived what Calvin thought and had embodied in institutions 
what Calvin recorded in his " Institutes." 

It happened that Calvin was at the height of his power in Geneva 
when Queen Mary began the persecution that drove a multitude of 
Protestants out of England. There was an attractive and safe 
place of refuge in the free and tolerant city where the teacher and 
counselor of Europe was guiding church and state. The result was 
that a little later Protestant preachers streamed back to popularize 
the religion whose adoption in England had been scarcely more 
than a policy of statecraft. It is easy to see why the faith of the 
English people was Calvinistic. 



22 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

It is equally intelligible that the Catholic party should violently 
oppose whatever the arch- heretic of Geneva taught and that what- 
ever was most antagonistic to Calvinism should win favor at the 
court of the Stuarts and among the clergy advanced to power by 
the royal prerogative. When fresh persecution drove other exiles 
across the sea they came out of Calvinistic England. It was one 
of the plainest sequences of history that the New England fathers 
held the Calvinistic creed. 

It was to them the banner of the Reformation, the symbol of a 
purified church, the hope of liberty, the guiding star of their holy 
enterprise in the new world. Calvinism was the most vital thing in 
that age. It was the life that was in the blood flowing to every 
part of the Protestant world. 

II. 

Passing now to a more practical view we observe that this theol- 
ogy took shape under the pressure of the most urgent necessities 
and the inspiration of the most profound experience. The funda- 
mental doctrine of Calvinism was the sovereignty of God. Like 
all who have held the Latin as distinguished from the Greek theol- 
ogy the reformers and the Puritans conceived God as king and 
permitted the majesty of the throne to overawe the heart ; but it 
does not seem to be true that they allowed the monarchical element 
to predominate in that mechanical sense which excites the criticism 
of many modern writers. These men so exalted God that the 
divine will seemed to them the one element that infinitely tran- 
scended all others. They reached this conception, not by thinking 
systematically of monarchical relations, not by analyzing the quali- 
ties inherent in a throne, but rather by the pressure of their own 
necessities. And these were twofold. 

When the reformers began their gigantic task they were the 
weakest of the weak arrayed against the mightiest of the mighty. 
What was a poor monk that he should assail the papal dominion ? 
And what prospect was there that unknown peasants would be able 
to dictate the conquering policies of the world? And when our 
fathers crossed the sea what a venture it was into the solitude of 
the Divine Presence ! In such conditions there was hope only in 



SERMON BY THE REV. WILBERT L. ANDERSON. 23 

God. The King of Kings was the confidence of the humble. It 
was in this way that the doctrine of the divine sovereignty met 
practical needs. 

Personal salvation in that earnest time was regarded as a task to 
be prosecuted under like stress. Hell was a reality, heaven was 
equally vivid to the imagination. To escape the one and win the 
other called for the most serious battle against an evil world and 
the corruptions of the heart. Again the divine was magnified. All 
hope was in God. What he did seemed all, and human power 
dwindled into nothingness. Cotton Mather says of Thomas 
Hooker that the very spirit of his ministry lay in points of the most 
practical religion and the grand concerns of the sinner's preparation 
for implantation in, and salvation by the glorious Lord Jesus 
Christ. These Christians magnified and exalted God and redemp- 
tion. Without reflecting upon the errors involved they cried out in 
their rapturous contemplation of grace that they themselves were 
nothing and had do part in their salvation j that they were corrupt, 
even to utter depravity ; that they belonged to a fallen and ruined 
race; that they could do no good thing ; and that when they tried 
to do good they plunged the deeper into evil and piled mountains 
upon mountains on the awful masses of their guilt. The typical 
attitude was expressed by Thomas Shepard when he said, "I was 
never tempted to Arminianism, my own experience so sensibly 
confuting the freedom of the will." 

When men escaped from this bondage in sin by intervening and 
unmerited grace, they not only ascribed all the glory to God, 
expressing their gratitude in the Calvinistic terms, but they used 
these expressions with a glow of emotion that hid their philosophical 
inaccuracy. It is an inexcusable mistake to suppose that the fathers 
of New England were cool, calculating, hair splitting theologians, 
delighting only in the nicety of their logic and the perfection of 
their systems. 

Jonathan Edwards, to illustrate from the latter time, surpasses 
almost every other thinker in the acuteness of his definitions and 
reasonings. But as Dante excels all who have attempted the de- 
scription of the spiritual world in the marvelous elaborateness of his 
circles within circles, his glories beyond glories, while at every stage 



24 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

of his descent and every advance toward the empyrean his heart 
yearns for Beatrice and at last throbs with the ecstacy of her pres- 
ence, so this.acutest of philosophers leaves upon those who know 
him best the inspiration of a soul intoxicated with heavenly visions. 
His own words give the clew. "He that is spiritually enlightened 
.... does not merely rationally believe that God is glorious, but he 
has a sense of the gloriousness of God in his heart. There is not 
only a rational belief that God is holy .... but there is a sense of 
the loveliness of God's holiness." 

Samuel Hopkins, it is said, would sometimes come from his study 
and walk his parlor floor for the space of two or three hours, press- 
ing his hands together in the most ravishing delight and seemingly 
in such an ecstacy as to be unable to contain himself. 

And we must not think that these experiences of the leaders were 
exceptional. On the side of the emotions the common people are 
easily the peers of theologians. These were the habits of mind, 
these were the moods of New England. Out of this sublime pas- 
sion, productive of dreams and enthusiasms such as filled the soul 
of Plato with philosophic rapture, sung, indeed, by Milton in glow- 
ing and affluent beauty, came the theology that was like the shining 
of suns. 

III. 

And now it has to be pointed out that a sad experience befell 
this New England. The first and the second generations were 
made up of picked men and women and their children. The third 
and the fourth generations showed a decline. The wilderness 
began to tell on the immigrants. Schools were inadequate. The 
life was rough and without the stimulating influences of an older 
society. The grandfather educated and receiving the formative 
impress in England, the father trained under that cultivated and 
admirable settler in the woods, were succeeded by children and 
children's children to whom the old world and its refinements were 
only a family tradition. It was then that the New England stock 
took on a hard, prosaic character. A race gifted with the rarest 
endowment, compelled to drudge for two generations, became the 
sharpest witted, the most enterprising, the most saving money 
makers of the world. 



SERMON BY THE REV. WILBERT L. ANDERSON. 25 

But more important was the degeneracy in religion. The early 
enthusiasm waned. When the tides of love went out the sands 
were laid bare to be blown by the hostile winds into heaps of arid 
waste. Errors in the Puritan theology were harmless while love hid 
them from sight. It was otherwise when the drying of the waters 
produced a Sahara. Where men had sailed the floods they could 
not wrestle with the fretful sands. Calvinism is the most inspiring 
of faiths while it is believed with all the heart by those who feel 
that they are the chosen of God ; nothing so cripples and paralyzes 
as this same creed apprehended as a rule of fate, handed down as 
the blighting inheritance of those who question their own election. 
Saul's armor, that was the protection of the great king's strength, 
becomes to David the cumbersome burden that he can not bear, 
the symbol of a ferocious vigor that no longer mounts into the deft 
swing of the agile arm. 

The loss of the original ardor had two results. The first was a 
stiffening of the characteristic doctrines until they assumed a form 
that was provocative of unbelief. The infidel, as he has been called. 
has been a prominent person in the group gathered about the stove 
in the post office and the country store. This conspicuous un- 
believer has had a considerable following among the intelligent as 
well as from fellows of the baser sort. These men have not been 
atheists, nor have they always been hostile in heart to the essentials 
of Christianity. They have been driven into antagonism by die 
preaching of doctrines illuminated by the cold blue flame of the 
intellect, which ought never to be exhibited without the warm 
yellow glow of emotion. The Calvinistic creed, when the life went 
out of it, became impossible to the candid mind. Within the 
church itself there was a silent change, that finally appeared in the 
general leaning toward Arminianism. This type of thought was 
then scarcely more than a denial of the Calvinistic doctrines. It 
was the negative that always shadows the positive. This powerless 
theology crept into the churches. It remained in them in spite of 
all renewals of faith in the last century until it ripened into a move- 
ment that by the union with great positive convictions of the 
intellect produced the Unitarian church in America, just as the 
same tendency kindled into flame by the positive convictions of the 



26 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

heart brought forth the Methodist church. In the early part of the 
last century there was no sign of these prodigious forces. Armin- 
ianism then was a mere protest, filling the churches with the lethargy 
of the negative. 

Worse than the crippling of unbelief within and without the 
church was the paralysis that came from faith. Calvinism had 
become fatalism. Men could do nothing to save themselves. 
They were compelled to wait in anxiety until the signs of regenera- 
tion appeared. The substantial and influential men in the congre- 
gations in great numbers fell into a fixed spiritual inactivity. They 
found that they did not have the experiences that were exalted in 
the traditions of the church and they settled down into content 
with membership in the parish and attendance upon public worship. 
So numerous were these persons that never joined the churches, 
that it became necessary to devise some method by which their 
children should not be excluded from baptism. The Half-way 
Covenant, by which it was permitted that the children of parents 
who were excluded from church membership by their inability to 
match the demands of Calvinism in their own experience could be 
baptized, was extensively adopted. Beyond this there was a move- 
ment, led by Solomon Stoddard, the predecessor of Jonathan 
Edwards at Northampton, which proposed to make the Lord's 
Supper a means of grace to the unregenerate. This never became 
general, but it shows how the paralysis struck the congregations. 

It was in such conditions that Jonathan Edwards led the way for 
a modification of the Calvinistic theology. His great contribution 
to religious thought was his doctrine that man has natural ability 
and lacks nothing but moral ability. By this he meant that there 
is no corruption in the substance of human nature, all that is wrong 
being the wrong will. It may be certain, it is not necessary that a 
bad man will sin and a good man keep to the paths of virtue. 
Character is the decisive thing rather than the nature. A man is 
free to do what he wills. Philosophers have not yet agreed whether 
Edwards taught a doctrine of genuine freedom. Whether he did 
or not is of little consequence. He believed that his doctrine 
made men free to determine their destiny ; and he preached 
directly to the will. Those who heard him felt the appeal as some- 



SERMON BY THE REV. WILBERT L. ANDERSON. 2J 

thing new, and there was a wonderful response. The aim of the 
successors of Edwards was above all else to find a place for free 
will within the Caivinistic system. They ran the whole course from 
Edwards' doctrine, that a man can if he will, to the last statement of 
this great controversy, that a man can if he won't. To what extent 
these theologians have succeeded in reconciling sovereignty and 
freedom, election and responsibility, it is not our province to de- 
termine. It is enough for our purpose that the time of Edwards' 
preaching was more and more addressed to the will, with the result 
that the paralysis of effort was broken. 

In another direction Edwards opened the way for a peculiar and 
most interesting advance. He taught a doctrine of love as the 
substance of moral obligation. Under the influence of his tropical 
temperament this love became a holy delight in the great system 
launched into existence and directed by the wisdom and goodness 
of God. If there was evil in the world it was part of the system 
that was good. The great hearted Hopkins found this conception 
in the teachings of his master and he carried it to a point that was 
one of the glorious developments of life under this theology. Dis- 
interested love was to him the central thing; and by this he meant 
the heart's right attitude toward all that is, and its consent to the 
whole system and recognition in it of the divine goodness and 
glory. If these fathers of New England had divided mankind into 
the saved and the lost and had contemplated the eternally misera- 
ble without sympathy, being absorbed in the exultation of their own 
happy destiny, we should pronounce them unworthy of admiration. 
Hopkins saw the line of cleavage as distinctly as any of his time ; 
and then he took the position which was most noble. The system 
so redounds to the glory of God and in manifesting that glory is so 
excellent that my heart and will consent to it even if it has been 
determined from the foundation of the world that I shall be lost. 
This is the famous test of souls, thrust into tender hearts by what 
seems a remorseless inquisition. Are you willing to be damned for 
the glory of God? But it was not the expression of a severe 
temper. It was the overflow of sympathy for the lost, the vicarious 
entering into their woe, the self identification with the multitudes 
that Calvinism had doomed. Here at last, was evidence that the 



28 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

dark side of the world that Calvinism pictured was appreciated. 
This was the beginning of the modern sympathy and tenderness 
that have results that no man can trace to-day. 

Along these two highways of thought moved the great succession 
of dogmas ; and here walked the men and women whose hearts 
and lives responded to the truth. There was on the one hand a 
new shaping of the conception of the world of good and evil as a 
whole, of the election of the system which is one magnificent dis- 
closure of the divine glory while inevitable suffering has infinite 
pity ; and on the other hand there was a growing directness in the 
appeal to the personal will. Men came at last to see that they 
were the arbiters of their own destiny within this world filled with 
sin ; that they were voluntary sinners in consequence of Adam's fall 
rather than the powerless victims of his transgression ; that their 
hope was in Christ ; not as the mechanical or commercial or 
judicial substitute for the miserable and the guilty, but as the divine 
representative, who accomplished in his life and death whatever 
was needful for the vindication of the holiness and the maintenance 
of the government of God. 

Little by little theology became preachable and liveable. The 
full result came not until generation had followed generation. The 
New England mind had to develop new habits of thought. The 
changes first conceived in the studies of the ministers had to be 
popularized. At last there rose up on every hand men who could 
preach the revised theology as they breathed their native air, and 
congregations that heard it as the expression of their own habitual 
thought. Then came the era of strong preaching, the period of 
great revivals lasting almost to our own day. The traditions of 
power still linger. The older Christians among us were converted 
as the great truths of this New England theology seized heart and 
conscience and developed new life in the churches. They tell us 
that ours are days of feebleness as compared with the splendid 
scenes of memory. Something must be allowed for the illusion of 
the past ; but there is truth in the comparison so much to our dis- 
credit, for then came to its culmination and its fruitage one of the 
most significant and influential evolutions of thought and life in the 
whole history of mankind. 



SERMON BY THE REV. WILBERT L. ANDERSON. 29 

IV. 

It remains to show what deposit has been left in the New Eng- 
land character by this theology that was the banner of the Reforma- 
tion, that was the ecstatic expression of profound experience, that 
became the instrument of an evangelism that ushered in the most 
marvelous missionary era of nineteen centuries. That this has 
been a living theology, formed by life and producing life, capable 
even of the great miracle of passing through death into the fuller 
life of a glorious resurrection, is abundantly evident. 

A group of traits may be named, first, that are the natural out- 
growth of such theological training. Here fall our intellectuality, 
our thrift, our reserve, our self control and caution. The indoctri- 
nating of a people in a system so elaborate and so profound is an 
education of the most effective kind. The keenness of the intelli- 
gence of New England is due in large measure to the constancy 
with which the noblest faculties have been held to the theological 
grindstone. To comprehend doctrines so difficult as those of this 
system, to be versed in the subtle discussion of these incomparable 
themes, requires mental power and discipline of the highest order. 
Probably the conditions that made this unparalleled debate possible 
have passed never to return. These were peculiar problems. They 
belong to the realm of pure thought. It was not necessary to 
consult the scientist, there was no occasion to pore over the 
learned minutia of the critic. To-day the theologian is a specialist, 
and the layman is told that he can not hope to understand the 
grounds upon which scholars rest their conclusions. It was other- 
wise when the whole equipment required was a disciplined specu- 
lative faculty and a bible, of which every word was implicitly 
believed. With the vast increase of learning in our time it becomes 
a serious question whether intellectual degeneracy may not charac- 
terize the popular mind. 

A hint has already been given that the thrift of our people is a 
habit begotten of the stern conditions of life in the wilderness. In 
fairness it must be added that other peoples have lived in primi- 
tive conditions without acquiring this prosperous state. There was 
a quality in these men and women that made them capable of ab- 



30 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

sorbing this benefit of poverty. Its source appears when we see 
that the prosperous have always been the devout worshipers in the 
churches. The well-to-do attend church to-day ; and they have 
always as a class maintained this sympathy with religion. It is 
made a cause of reproach that men distinguished for religious ear- 
nestness have a remarkable interest in the dollar and an equally 
notable faculty of getting it and holding on to it. This is traceable 
to the serious view of life, to the fine sense of responsibility, to the 
habit of making the use of every hour and every opportunity that 
is believed to answer to the will of God. One channel for activity 
is a defect ; but if that one channel is excavated to the neglect of 
others the height to which the water will rise depends upon the 
supply from the fountain head. That original spring of motive in 
New England is amid the heights where God dwells. Our thrift is 
the form success has taken ; and it is to our credit that a life re- 
plete with power has accumulated great balances in savings banks 
and has furnished the capital for every useful enterprise. 

There is no trait of the New Englander that is more often men- 
tioned than his reserve. That his heart is warm has already been 
pointed out. That does not, however, appears from any word of 
his. The New Englander is like those anthracite stoves whose door 
must be opened before you can see the fire. This sheet iron fur- 
nace hammered into form is of a different order from those which 
are cast in a great heat with a row of mica windows all the way 
around. There is a clear relation of this habit of reserve to the 
vast interior world of faith. It is because the inward eye sees so 
much that the tongue stumbles and can not glibly tell the tale. 
And when we add that the devout heart is awed unspeakably by 
the goodness and glory of God we can see why this sense of the 
Divine Presence checks volubility. 

Nearly allied to this is the caution and self control that are the 
chief elements in the proverbial shrewdness of the Yankee. That 
spiritual world is not a realm of unbroken peace. It is the theater 
of endless conflict. Salvation is to be won at great hazard. The 
strenuousness of the struggle to enter by the strait gate has devel- 
oped that sober and calculating temper, that habit of measuring 
difficulties and obstacles, that is essential to the successful prosecu- 



SERMON" BY THE REV. WILBERT L. ANDERSON. 3 1 

tion of any enterprise. The contemplation of life as beset with 
dangers, the anticipation of every possible predicament and pre- 
paration for it, the extrication of the soul from its condition of ruin 
and peril, — these demands of a severe theology have trained the 
New Englander until he is the most cautious, the most far seeing, 
the most calculating of men. He does not act from impulse, he 
will not trust to luck, he does not become an adventurer until he 
falls from grace. He will attempt anything and everything that is 
commended to sound judgment ; but before he will lift a finger he 
will overwhelm you with such a recounting of perils that unless you 
are versed in the intricate working of his mind you will conclude 
that he intends to do nothing. 

Passing now to the influence of particular doctrines, it is a com- 
monplace of historical generalization that Calvinism has been a 
chief means of extending democracy. A familiar representation is 
that all men, the tall and the short, are an indistinguishable crowd 
as seen from the height from which God surveys them. Certainly, 
when men train themselves to think of God as all in all and man as 
the mere dust of the balance, the distinctions between class and 
class are insignificant. Calvinism humbles the proud. If God 
elects whom he will, the poor, the despised, the outcast may sit in 
the highest rooms, while the tyrants and all the arrogant of earth 
are cast into outer darkness. It is impossible to calculate the in- 
fluences in favor of democracy that have emanated from the spirit- 
ual world ; and of all the forms of faith none has done more to cast 
down the oppressor and to exalt the oppressed than that which 
makes the sovereign will of God the arbiter of destiny. Who, that 
is the elect of God, can be rightfully excluded from the responsi- 
bilities and privileges of citizenship on earth? 

This reaction of otherworldliness is precisely what democracy 
needs. The democracy that urges no claim beyond the needs of 
the flesh, that is content with an equal chance for the bread and 
the butter of the earthly life, is poor stuff as compared with the love 
of liberty and equality and justice that is founded upon the eternal 
truths that gird the throne of God. God is sovereign, therefore 
men are free ; and there can be no abiding and fruitful democracy 
that does not receive its Magna Charta from the King of Kings. 



32 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

The New England town-meeting was the natural expression of the 
political life of the men whose hearts were set upon obedience to 
the government of God. 

Once more, if we seek the origin of the uncompromising con- 
science of New England, we trace it to the profound recognition 
of the will of God. Cromwell was the most splendid example of 
Calvinistic conscience. The Puritans were slaves of conscience, and 
under that mighty mastery they turned upon the world to bring it 
into the same subjection. Their spirit remains as the permanent 
sensitiveness to evil, as the undying passion for reform. The 
power of the New England conscience is the marvel of our history. 
Nothing in the nation is finally settled until it squares with the un- 
compromising voice of God in these trained souls. 

But yet more worthy of admiration is this might of conscience 
maintaining its sway in the individual heart. The New Englander, 
with his rare intellectual keenness, with his trained caution, with 
his thrift and genius for success, with his habitual secrecy, escap- 
ing from the bonds of conscience, would be a diabolical man. 
Nothing in this world would be safe against his superior power. 
He would gather to himself the richness of the world, he would 
head the movement for an imperial dominion of the earth in his 
own interest. But out of his theology is born a spirit of obedience 
to the will of God and a love for all sorts and conditions of men 
as sharers with him in the infinite beneficence, as partakers with 
him in the divine justice, and this man that might be the despair 
of earth, restrained, impelled, brought into harmony with God by 
his conscience, becomes the consecrated servant of mankind, and 
makes it the chief aim of his heart to glorify God in being useful 
to his fellow men. 

One thing more may be added. The New Englander is a 
dreamer, a builder of castles in the air. Practical as he is, he is a 
visionary and an idealist. Nothing stirs him more than the sight 
of the city of God coming down out of heaven. This is the spur 
of invention, for nothing that is less than perfect can be long en- 
dured. This is the stimulus of industry, for this man will toil till 
his muscles wither with age to possess a home which will answer to 
the dream of his heart. This is the source of social theorizinsr that 



SERMON BY THE REV. WILBERT L. ANDERSON. 33 

tears down and builds anew the conceptions of what ought to be, 
until these cloud lands grow into masses that fill the sky and be- 
come portentous of storms that will cleanse and renew the world. 
This ideality is the inheritance from the founders who came to the 
new world to establish a state which would be the earthly counter- 
part of the New Jerusalem. The light of that sun which is the 
shining of God irradiates these ever gathering mists, and the shadowy 
forms they hold within their depths grow luminous with the splen- 
dors that are not of earth. 

For what practical end is this protracted discussion? The right 
understanding of history is important, and I know not where to 
find any system of thought that has been more caricatured and 
misunderstood than the Calvinistic theology. One who compre- 
hends the historic connections, the relation to experience, the pro- 
cess of reshaping under practical demands, and the incalculable 
contribution to the formation of the best type of character the 
world has seen, is in position to avoid the errors of a noisy ignor- 
ance. 

But we can not pause with an increased light for the under- 
standing. When we come to see what men and women cherished 
this faith we are filled with admiration. We do not accept for 
ourselves all parts of this creed ; but there is not an element in it 
that, contemplated from the right point of view, is unworthy of re- 
spectful and loving appreciation. Its excesses and errors have a 
charm when we see them blooming with life. We may not trans- 
plant every wild flower to our gardens ; but there is not one that 
opens its sweet face to the sun, not one that sheds its fragrance on 
the eager air, that we do not love. But to prize flower or faith 
aright it is necessary to look upon it in the dewey freshness of life. 
Neither the herbarium of the botanist, nor the dusty lore of the 
dogmatist is a substitute for the luxuriant verdure and the glory of 
color that made the fields of earth reflect the infinite meadows of 
heaven in which blossom the beautiful stars. 

Nor can we rest content with understanding and appreciation. 
We go on to take for our lives the powers of the spiritual world 
here displayed. The path along which these men and women 
walked is that radiant highway that grows brighter and brighter 



34 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

unto the perfect day. This truth was a guide not alone for the 
life that is, but for that which is to be. This may be a straight and 
narrow way, but it leads to life. Heaven has not been caught up 
in the swift revolutions of the stars and borne to new latitudes and 
longitudes amid the rolling spheres, so that in the new times new 
charts are needed and new readings of the compass. Heaven is 
where it has always been, where the paths of righteousness meet, 
where the courses traced by conscience end, where all voyages in- 
spired by faith, and impelled by love, and cheered on by hope find 
their haven. The New England theology is based upon two great 
truths that belong to all righteousness and all faith, truths as abid- 
ing as God and man. God is sovereign. Man is responsible. The 
divine will is law and human duty is obedience and submission. 
Doing the will of God is now, always has been, forever will be an 
essential element in religion. 

To this we do well to add with equal emphasis the other great 
doctrine that God is Father, and man the child of the paternal 
love. The makers of New England never lost sight of the fatherly 
goodness of their God, although it was not the formative principle 
of their creeds. The pendulum of history has swung far to the 
other side ; and now men magnify the divine fatherhood, imper- 
fectly remembering the divine sovereignty. Let us do neither the 
one nor the other. Shall we not take the truth of the New Eng- 
land theology and the truth of modern thought and subject our 
lives to all the blessed influences alike of the throne and of the 
heart of God? 

^Yhen the eminence and the transcendence of God are united 
then the world will attain a perfect theology. God is in the world, 
as science and literature teach ; he rules the world, as conscience 
and revelation declare. Until that great day when all truth shall 
be radiant in a single sun and the God who is light shall appear as 
one in whom is no darkness at all, that which has been wrought in 
the lives that give splendor to New England will bear enduring 
witness to a radiant portion of the everlasting truth. These cen- 
turies of heroic struggle to find out God and do his will have not 
been in vain. Out of their labor and faith have come visions of 
truth, which dissolving under the light of new times and blending 
with other forms of glory will abide in the final unveiling of God. 



TO THE READER. 



AS suggested in the general preface to this volume, my purpose 
is to give a history of the First Church in Exeter, and to 
make that church central to all the subjects introduced. It would 
be impossible to trace the progress of a parish without some refer- 
ence to the town, with which it is coeval and was once co-extensive, 
without mentioning the secular affairs of this locality. It would be 
equally impracticable to attempt to describe the secession of 1743 
without adding some facts regarding the origin of the "Great Awak- 
ening," and its results in other communities. I have, however, 
avoided multiplying extraneous details as far as is consistent with 
an intelligent and intelligible presentation of the subject. I have 
striven to be impartial in all that I have written. I am a chronicler, 
not a partisan. If I have made strong claims for the continuity of 
the church of 1638 it is because that continuity has been assailed, 
I think unjustly, and because the figures in the denominational 
Year Book would lead one to think that Exeter had no church at 
all for sixty years preceding 1698. In Dr. Hazen's invaluable 
Congregational and Presbyterian Ministry and Churches of New 
Hampshire, the First church of Exeter is thus credited: "1st ch. 
org. 1638. New org. 1698, Sept. 21." If nothing more can be 
done, why should not a like entry appear in the Year Book? This 
would seem scant justice, but it is certainly much more suggestive 
of fact than the complete burial of over half a century of ecclesias- 
tical history. Whether or not I shall be thought to prove my full 
case — the chronological equality of Exeter with Hampton and 
Dover, Samuel Dudley's pastorate of thirty-three years ought not to 
be relegated to oblivion in a Congregational record book. 

The history of the great conflict of 1 743, and many years follow- 
ing, has always been attractive to me. My boyhood was spent 
among relatives and other elders who had conversed with partici- 
pants in the controversy, or with their children. I heard very many 



2,6 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

interesting facts, and caught something of the spirit of the eventful 
period. I have myself personally known at least one of the spec- 
tators of Whitefield's last service, held at Exeter September 29, 
1770. 

I ought to be able to do justice to all sides alike, for curiously 
enough I am a lineal descendant in the same degree of the princi- 
pal contestants — great-great-grandson. First of John Odlin, second 
of Peter Gilman, through the marriage of his daughter, Mrs. Strong, 
with Woodbridge Odlin, third of Daniel Gilman, Peter's cousin, 
through the marriage of his grandson, my maternal grandfather, 
Nathaniel Gilman, with the daughter of Woodbridge Odlin. I am 
also related, but more indirectly, though through two lines of 
descent, to the Rev. Daniel Rogers, whose intrusion and irregular 
installation, or, if one pleases, ordination, gave the Odlins and 
ecclesiastical purists generally so much annoyance. 

Under these circumstances I can hardly be charged with parti- 
sanship, though I ask no one to accept my judgments as infallible. 
With respect to the history of the First church, after the reorgani- 
zation of 1698, I have been assisted by its records, which detail 
that reorganization, but, with the exception of a single item of little 
importance, contain nothing earlier than 1743, the year of the 
secession. The parish records begin with 1755, just after the New 
parish had been set off. The earlier transactions of the parish 
were, doubtless, noted in the town records, for the town was then 
the parish. These have been reproduced in the New Hampshire 
Provincial Papers, especially in Volumes IX and XI, which are 
devoted to town affairs. From the dates above mentioned, both 
parish and church records are continuous and pretty full, though I 
have occasionally been compelled to look elsewhere for additional 
or illustrative facts. 

The parish records of the church of 1748 are gathered in a single 
volume, used by the parish of the church of 1813 to a date beyond 
the period included in my investigations. The church books of 
the organization of 181 3 begin with that year and have been kindly 
placed at my service. Supplementary to the above is the manu- 
script testimony of my father, the late Dr. William Perry, who came 
to Exeter at the beginning of 18 14, and was familiar with the men 



TO THE READER. 37 

and events he describes. In regard to a still later period I have 
purposely avoided detailing the conflicts of one or two troubled 
pastorates in the First church. The difficulties were entirely per- 
sonal, and involved no issues of permanent importance, except to 
antiquaries, who may study them in two or three ephemeral and 
one-sided pamphlets. To the mass of people they have no interest, 
as all concerned are dead. 

What I have written has been gathered, frequently by piecemeal 
from many sources, generally indicated in the text or in notes. I 
have already indicated my obligations to the Provincial Papers and 
local church records. To these I may add as specially useful Bell's 
History of Exeter and Life of Wheelwright, for outline facts ; Dow's 
History of Hampton ; Quint's 250th Anniversary of the First Parish 
in Dover; Bouton's Discourse at Fiftieth Anniversary New Hamp- 
shire General Association ; Tracy's History of the Great Awaken- 
ing; Farmer and Moore's Historical Collections; Lawrence's 
New Hampshire Churches; Hazen's Ministry and Churches of 
New Hampshire ; South Berwick, Maine, church records ; Stevens's 
History of Methodism and various lives of Whitefield. This list 
might be lengthened materially were I to mention all the books in 
which I have found something. Of the strictly contemporaneous 
authorities consulted the most important are : The Result of a 
Council of Ten Churches convened at Exeter January 31, 1743 
[-4], Boston, 1744, and An Account of the Remonstrances of the 
Church in Exeter and of a Number of Neighboring Ministers against 
the Installment (so called) of Mr. Daniel Rogers over a Number 
of Separatists belonging to Said Church, Boston, 1748. Both of 
these pamphlets and the manuscript of the first sermon preached 
by Mr. Rogers after his installation are included in the Bell collec- 
tion of our Public Library. 

Very interesting, for the side lights which they throw upon the 
conflict of 1743 and after events, are the interleaved almanacs of 
the Rev. Daniel Rogers. For • the free use of these I am much 
indebted to John Ward Dean, Esq., of Boston, and the Historic 
Genealogical Society, of which he has long been a prominent official. 
Besides four or five earlier records, beginning with 1730, a good 
many of those jotted down during the thirty-seven years of Mr. 



38 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

Rogers's Exeter pastorate have been preserved, viz.: 1748, 49; 
i75i-55; 1759; 1762; 1764,65; 1767; 1769; 1775-80; a few 
pages of 1 781 ; 1782 ; 1784 interleaved, but with no entries; and 
1785, the year of the diarist's death, quite imperfect. 

I have also to thank the Hon. Joseph B. Walker, of Concord, 
and Miss Mary R. Jewett, of South Berwick, Maine, for cordial sym- 
pathy and help in my work. As may be supposed, only a small 
part of my paper was actually read. I have, however, retained the 
hortatory style of the closing part, possibly at the expense of dignity 
in the estimation of the reader. 

j. T. P. 

Exeter, December, 1898. 



THE CHURCH'S HISTORY. 
By John Taylor Perry. 



A LITTLE more than ten years have passed since our good 
town of Exeter celebrated its attainment of two hundred and 
fifty years of existence. As coeval with it, our parish, whose 
church was the first Congregational organization actually founded in 
New Hampshire, Hampton church having had a previous existence 
in Lynn, Mass., also celebrated its quadro-millennial. The 
changes of two centuries and a half, with special reference to the 
period between 1638 and [698, were then eloquently portrayed by 
our pastor, the Rev. Swift Byington, who has since joined the 
founders and many generations of worshippers in a world toward 
which we are all rapidly moving. 

My task differs essentially from that of Mr. Byington. In the 
limits of a sermon he could take only a bird's-eye view, and the 
spirit of the celebration demanded a concentration on the founda- 
tion years of church and parish. It is my province to chronicle in 
detail those events of the church's entire history which seem most 
worthy of commemoration, with as much impartiality and strict 
adherence to truth as is possible to a mortal pen. I shall try to be 
a faithful historian rather than a philosophical critic. My field is 
primarily the reconstructed church of 1698, but I cannot wholly 
pass over the consideration of what was then reorganized, and a 
church, whose parish was long identical with the town, cannot be 
understood without frequent references to the parish and town 
movements. Hence I must begin with an account of 

The Original Church. 

Exeter and the First church owe their existence to the Rev. John 
Wheelwright, born near Saleby in Lincolnshire, England, about 
1592. After his graduation from Sidney College, Cambridge, he 



4-0 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

entered the ministry of the church of England, but in about ten 
years was silenced by his bishop for Puritanism, and, accompanied 
by his second wife, and five children, landed at Boston in 1636. He 
was a man somewhat given to controversy, and fearless in the expres- 
sion of his opinions. Consequently, like his contemporary Blaxton, 
the pioneer settler in the vicinity of Boston, though at first popular, 
he soon found the Lord's brethren as meddlesome as the Lord's 
bishops had been. He came into trouble through Anne Hutchin- 
son, the wife of his own wife's brother William. Mrs. Hutchinson 
was a woman of much talent, but tenaciously held peculiar views 
and diffused them very incautiously. She gathered the women 
together, and at frequent meetings developed sentiments somewhat 
like those of the higher life advocates of the present day. Had she 
confined herself to spiritual abstractions, she might have passed 
unchallenged, but she joined, with her supposed clearer revelations 
of truth, sharp arraignments of the ministers and elders of the 
province, alleging in no measured terms that they were unsanctified 
and consequently unsafe guides. A prodigious opposition was 
aroused, and her doctrines were stigmatized as antinomian — that is, 
teaching that under the gospel dispensation believers are not bound 
by the moral law. Whether or not such an inference could logi- 
cally be drawn from some of her incautious utterances, there is no 
reason for thinking that either Mrs. Hutchinson or her followers, 
who included many of the most devout Bostonians of both sexes, 
favored immorality, or even laxity, under a sanctimonious guise. 
The times, however, were not favorable for the tolerance of any 
departure from the generally received beliefs, and a grand heresy- 
hunt was instituted. A Fast day sermon, preached by Wheel- 
wright, was deemed sufficient cause for his banishment, and Mrs. 
Hutchinson shared the same penalty. He went to New Hamp- 
shire, and she to Rhode Island, while many of her masculine 
followers were made to surrender their firearms and swords — 
among others John Odlin, an immigrant and the grandfather of a 
future pastor of Exeter. 

Wheelwright and a few followers reached Exeter on the third of 
April, 1638, five months before Mr. Bachiler and his church came 
from Lynn to Hampton. They soon concluded two treaties with the 



THE CHURCH'S HISTORY. 41 

Indian owners of the soil. One of these made the Merrimack river 
the southern border of the grant, while the other began three miles 
farther north, the object being to escape trespassing on Massachu- 
setts soil. If worse came to worst, the smaller limit only would be 
claimed. Northwardly, the grant extended to the limits of Dover, 
including much of the present town of Durham. These many 
square miles were gradually diminished, so that the Exeter of 1698 
included only our present town, and the Newmarket, Newfields, 
Epping, Brentwood and Fremont of our own day — a diminished 
but still large and dangerous parish for the supervision of a single 
pastor. In 1697 an ambush lay in wait back of the Newmarket 
road, which by accident was scared away. In 1707 a Mr. Folsom 
was shot by Indians on his way from the present Newfields to the 
northerly part of the town, and in 171 1, two or three men were 
either killed or captured near the junction of the Brentwood and 
Epping roads, just beyond the plains. 

But to return to Wheelwright and his followers, of whom over 
fifty came with or soon after him with their families. They founded 
a town, and speedily began to gather a church, antedating a few 
weeks, perhaps months, the building of the first house of worship 
at Hampton, and the temporary church organization — deemed 
irregular by the Massachusetts authorities — of the turbulent Captain 
Qnderhill at Dover some weeks more. Underbill's church had two 
pastors, one Baptist and the other Congregational, and was super- 
seded by a strictly Congregational organization in 1641-42. 
Exeter was Congregational from the first. That the Exeter church 
was in existence in 1638 is shown by the action of the church in 
Boston of which many of the colonists had been members. On 
January 6, 1639, it uses retrospective language in conditioning the 
dismissal of Wheelwright and eight others to "the church at the 
falls of the Pascataquack" to the point "if they be rightly gathered 
and ordered." Full satisfaction of this doubt was obviously 
afforded the Boston brethren, for on March 3, 1639, they dismissed 
unconditionally five other persons to the Exeter church, one of 
them being Wheelwright's wife. 

Dr. A. H. Quint, who, as we shall soon see, is an uncompromis- 
ing champion of the priority and regularity of the church at Dover, 



42 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

says in his Dover bicentennial of the above recorded action : 
"Some claim was formerly made that this (Exeter) church was 
formed in 1638 ; but as the records of the First church in Boston 
show the dismissal of Rev. John Wheelwright and others to form 
this church as not taking place until January 6, 1639, it is mani- 
fest that the organization could not have been in 1638." In reply 
to this it is sufficient to quote the following impartial statement by 
ex-Governor Bell. Referring to the gathering of the Exeter church, 
he says : 

"We assume that this was done before December 13, 1638, because the fact 
is recorded in the past tense in Winthrop's contemporaneous History of New 
England, under that date. The time of the formation of the church is not 
there given, but the facts recited would imply that it must have been in exis- 
tence for some weeks, if not months before that date. It probably included in 
its membership all, or nearly all, the adult persons in the settlement. The 
members of the newly gathered church wrote to the church in Boston, no 
doubt, in the autumn of 1638, asking for the dismission of Wheelwright there- 
from, in order that he might be their minister; but as Wheelwright himself, 
for obvious reasons, did not join in the petition, the elders of the Boston church 
declined to lay the proposal before the members. Upon this being made 
known to Wheelwright he sent his own request to the same effect, which 
reached the elders early in December; and thereupon on the sixth of the 
following January the Boston church dismissed Wheelwright." 

That there may be no possible doubt on the subject, I quote 
Winthrop's precise utterance, dated, as Governor Bell says, Decem- 
ber 13, 1638: 

"Those who went to the falls at Pascataquack gathered a church and wrote 
to our church to desire us to dismiss Mr. Wheelwright for them for an officer; 
but because he desired it not himself, the elders did not propound it. Soon 
after came his own letters, with theirs, for his dismission, which thereupon 
was granted. Others also (upon their request) were dismissed thither." 

It will thus be seen that, unless the completed consent of the 
Boston church was essential to the existence of a church in Exeter, 
Dr. Quint's argument is based on a mere technicality.* 

*Dr. Quint, beside rejecting the continued existence of our church, coolly says (address, p. 
56): The original First was the third church in New Hampshire. Of course, Dover was the 
first, while in his later days, we are told, he had become convinced of the non-existence of a 
valid connection between the Lynn and the Hampton organizations, and perhaps of later breaks. 
A learned antiquary, he was often over pugnacious, a kind of historical Athanasius contra 
mundum. 



the church's history. 43 

Wheelwright remained in Exeter until 1643, when Massachusetts 
asserted jurisdiction over the new settlement, and, as a banished 
man, he removed to Wells in Maine. In 1643 he made some con- 
cession to the Massachusetts authorities, apologizing for harsh 
language, but not acknowledging that he had been heretical. 
Governor Winthrop helped on this settlement, believing, as he 
publicly said, that, while a favorer of the movement against him, 
"he did love that brother's person and did honor the gifts and grace 
of God in him." In 1647, after his restoration to favor, he disap- 
pointed his Exeter flock by taking charge of the church in Hamp- 
ton, where he remained eight or nine years. He returned thence 
to England, where he stayed till the persecution under Charles II 
broke out. Coming back to New England, he was called to the 
church of Salisbury, Mass., where he died in office in 1679, aged 
about 87. He was able and energetic, but hardly ranked among 
the peace makers of his day. I le was obviously better qualified to 
found a town and a church than permanently to rule either in a 
spirit of love and forbearance. 

After his departure from Exeter, and the conclusion of the one 
year's service of Mr. Thomas Rashleigh, of Boston, who declined 
to stay longer, the church was afflicted with dissensions. These 
may have arisen from the dissenting views of the "antinomians," 
whom Wheelwright had left behind, and the orthodox, who had 
lately come in. Hardly had Mr. Rashleigh gone, than an invitation 
was proposed to the Rev. Stephen Bachiler, who had lately left 
Hampton under somewhat suspicious circumstances. This plan 
would probably have been acted on, had not the Great and General 
Court of Massachusetts interfered. Its injunction shows that grave 
differences existed among the Exeter people, so that harmony was 
for the present impossible, and its language seems to imply that Mr. 
Bachiler was the candidate of a faction ready to organize by itself. 
I quote : 

"Whereas it appears to this court that some of (the italics are mine) the in- 
habitants of Excetter do intend shortly to gather a church and call Mr. 
Bachiler to be their minister, and forasmuch as the divisions and contentions 
which are among the inhabitants there are judged by this Crt to be such as for 
the present they cannot comfortably and with approbation proceed in so 



44 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

weighty and sacred affaires, it is therefore ordered that direction shall forth- 
with be sent to the said inhabitants to deferr the gathering of any church or 
other such proceeding until this Cort or the Cort at Ipswich upon further satis- 
faction of their reconciliation and fitness shall give allowance thereto." 

The General Court also sent a committee to look after the 
church. Just what was done history fails to record, but the con- 
tinued activity of the people in securing preachers shows that they 
were neither dead nor dismayed, and also appears to indicate 
that they were backed by the approval of the General Court. The 
commission had apparently found or placed things in a satisfactory 
state. Presiding Elder Hatevil Nutter, of Dover, is believed to 
have supplied the pulpit pretty frequently, and unsuccessful calls to 
the pastorate were made to Mr. Tompson, of Braintree, Mass., in 
1648 and Mr. Emerson, of Rowley, Mass., in 1649. In 1650 this 
persistency — which is certainly remarkable in a church which, ac- 
cording to some authorities, was disbanded and died in 1643 — 
was rewarded by the acceptance of the Rev. Samuel Dudley, a son 
of Governor Thomas Dudley, and ancestor of all who bear the 
name, and of many who do not, in and about Exeter. The town's 
call was made May 30th, and Mr. Dudley was promised the house 
bought of Mr. Wheelwright, with a fenced in yard and garden, a 
cow house, some meadow land and an allowance for needed repairs. 
His salary was to be forty pounds a year payable in corn and Eng- 
lish goods. To raise the needed amount of money, makers of 
staves and other products of the lumber, which was then the chief 
article of traffic, were assessed a certain number of shillings per 
thousand, the percentage varying from one shilling and sixpence to 
four shillings, according to the article made. 

The old meeting-house, which stood somewhere between Cap- 
tain Furnald's and the railroad track, was probably a very rude 
affair, since its successor, promised to Mr. Dudley, was to be only 
twenty feet square.* Many of the early settlers were evidently 

* The Hampton boundary commissioners appointed by the General Court of Massachusetts 
report in 1653 the existence of the new meeting-house. In 1664 the town voted to build a 
lean-to against it and in 1668 an official was given full power to arrest and sue any inhabitant 
who refused to pay the ministerial tax. Yet it is claimed by the Dover authorities that there 
was no church in Exeter, for in 1676, while Mr. Dudley was pastor, the town was prosecuted at 
the Hampton court for letting the meeting-house lie open and cattle go in. The selectmen were 
ordered to keep the doors shut. Nothing more was heard of the matter. Bell thinks it the 



the church's history. 45 

buried around these primitive places of worship, for when clay was 
taken thence to make bricks for the house now occupied by Mr. 
Stephen F. Gale, fragments of human bones were found in abun- 
dance. Mr. Dudley was an able man, but he had a hard field to 
till. In 1655 his contract with the town was annulled, as the people 
found it hard to pay him. Still, he continued preaching until he 
received a call from Portsmouth, which startled the community into 
an appreciation of his value and opened their pockets. They not 
only raised his salary to ,£50, but made the selectmen responsible 
for its collection. If the public generally did not make up all 
deficiencies the town officials must do so. In 167 1 this strange 
provision was abrogated and the minister's salary made £60. Mr. 
Dudley died in 1683, and was buried, it is thought, on the hill 
back of the gas works. 

From 1683 to 1693 the pulpit was supplied by the Rev. John 
Cotton, of Hampton, and Ruling Elder William Wentworth, a 
member of the combination under Wheelwright, and ancestor of 
the colonial governors and Exeter's professor of the same name. 
Elder Wentworth's formal term of office extended from 1690 to 
1693, when his declination of further service, on account of his ad- 
vanced age, led to the movement toward reorganization, the culmi- 
nation of which is our more immediate subject. 

A Question of History. 

Before describing the formalities of the reorganization of 1698, 
we must offer additional reasons to show that the date of 1638, 
conceded to Hampton and Dover in the denominational Year 15ook 
and General Association reports, can be claimed by Exeter also, 
though denied by these official manuals and the existence of any 
church here previous to 1698 coolly ignored, as, to quote Quint 
once more,* "a claim that the present church, formed in 1698, 

"result of an accident of a day exaggerated to the court by some malicious mischief maker." 
The incident reminds one of the instances of neglect and desecration of Episcopal churches in 
Virginia in the last century described by the late Bishop Meade. Yet though the misdoings 
were protracted, and not exceptional as in Exeter, no one has ever contended that the Virginia 
churches went out of existence. Two years after the occurrence above mentioned the town 
appointed four tithing men, the first in its history, which it would hardly have done had it only 
a cow house to guard. 

* Memorial address, note p. 56. Bell's History, p. 167. 



46 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

was a reorganization of the church which expired in 1643, and of 
which not one soul was 'reorganized,' is too absurd to need a 
reply." We shall soon see how this is. 

The existence of a pastorate of thirty-three years, several sup- 
plies, and various earnest, if unsuccessful attempts to procure a 
minister by our people have already been mentioned. There were 
two pastorless breaks, but, as has been shown, these periods were 
covered by supplies or marked by active hunting for a pastor. 
Once in the seventeenth century Hampton was without a minister 
for a longer period, but no fair minded person on that account 
denies the continuity of its church. Unless an unbroken succession 
of all ecclesiastical formalities is essential to the maintenance of a 
church's life, Exeter is entitled to the same consideration as Dover 
and Hampton. The descendants of those founders of the church 
of 1638 who remained in Exeter maintained worship all along and 
were heard of again in 1698. 

But there is also positive proof of a direct connection of the 
churches of 1638 and 1698 by two links. Elder William Went- 
worth, who signed the politico-religious combination of 1639, 
drawn up by Wheelwright, lived until 1697, only one year 
before Mr. Clark's ordination over the reorganized church, and 
three years after Mr. Clark had not only agreed to come, but 
had supplied the pulpit for some months, if not years. Only a 
delay in determining where people should sit prevented the full re- 
organization of the church many months earlier. As one of the 
first settlers, and as long acting pastor, Elder Wentworth must have 
been influential in directing the new movement, and helped to 
shape the second organization as he did the first. Was not he a 
genuine and important link? Nor is the Elder the only link. A 
second is found in William Moore, who came to Exeter in 1639, 
lived there all the remainder of his life, which did not end until 
1699 or 1700. His respectability is shown by his being placed 
fourth in the list of twenty-six persons, headed by the pastor, who 
formed the reorganized church, and was not among seven of the 
number who had been dismissed from the Hampton church. 
There is no indication that anyone of the entire twenty-six was 
admitted as a new convert. Moore's name does not appear among 



THE CHURCH'S HISTORY. 47 

the signers of Wheelwright's politico-religious combination of 1639. 
He may have come later in the year or, like some others, may have 
objected to certain of its provisions. It is evident that he must have 
been an established church member previous to 169S. If not at 
Hampton, where but at Exeter? and if there was no Exeter church 
after 1643, his membership must have antedated that year.* 

The alleged limitations of our church life to a period beginning 
with 1698 — there can be no such restriction of the parish — is 
mainly based on the town's call to Mr. Dudley, who is asked to 
come "until such time as God shall be pleased to make way for the 
gathering of a church, and then to be ordained;" also on the 
already quoted injunction of the General Court of Massachusetts 
regarding the call to Mr. Bachiler. If this last proves a break in all 
church life, it covers at most only the period between 1644 and 
1650, since the call of the latter year could only have been made 
after unity had measurably been established. A similar break 
of about ten years is held by no one, unless Dr. Quint, to in- 
validate Hampton claims to continuity. When Mr. Dudley came 
to stay thirty-three years, he was admonished to look toward re- 
organization. He may and may not have moved in that direction, 
but it is hardly to be supposed that the sacraments were not ad- 
ministered, and that no converts were received on public profession 
during a third of a century. It can scarcely be doubted, though, 
through the loss of records, much must be left to conjecture, that 
something having the great essentials of a church existed and that 
Mr. Dudley especially tried to fulfil the expressed wishes of those 
who called him. Was it likely that the Gilmans and their kinsmen 
the Folsoms, who had left England to secure the free exercise of 
their zealous Puritanism, would have lived in Exeter over forty 
years without enjoying Christian ordinances? Already settled and 
well to do, the one family in Ipswich, and the other in Hingham, 
Mass., is it reconcilable with their known characteristics that they 
should turn their backs on churches and select for their abode a 
churchless frontier town? What was true of these important 
families was true of others, no doubt. John Folsom, son of the 
original settler of the same name, was a deacon. When elected we 

* Bell's History, p. 30. First Church records, p. 1. 



48 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

do not know, but if not until 1698, he must have reached fifty- 
seven when chosen. 

It is very probable that in some minor respects the old church 
was not perfect in its organization according to the Congregational 
high churchism of the Mathers, and the Rev. John Clark graduated 
from Harvard under Increase Mather's presidency. A few years 
later, Judge Sewall wanted to refuse Thomas Hollis's gift for a 
professorship simply because Hollis was a Baptist. Such ardent 
zeal for every jot and tittle of polity no doubt inspired the elabor- 
ate proceedings of 1698. But why should technicalities be urged 
against Exeter, and waived in behalf of Hampton and Dover? If 
our records are lacking, we are not so very much worse than are 
the other two churches which were the only Congregational ones 
outside of Exeter until Portsmouth's first Congregational organiza- 
tion came into being in 1671.* It is folly to look in seventeenth 
century transactions for anything like the regularity involved in the 
nineteenth from over two hundred years of conflict and hardship. 
Neither Hampton nor Dover has a consecutive series of seventeenth 
century records, Hampton's most important being some facts re- 
garding the settlement of Wheelwright in 1647, and a list of mem- 
bers during Seaborn Cotton's pastorate not far from a quarter of a 
century later. But how is it with Dover? Can her church endure 
a test by which, according to Dr. Quint, both Exeter and Hampton 
have been tried and found wanting? The church in Dover has next 
to no records of its own previous to 17 18. The town records 
show, however, that worship of some kind was established very 
early, but the first recorded vote concerning regular Congregational 
church privileges is of 1644. It orders fishermen to serve church 
officers with the first fish they catch. Another vote, "apparently of 
1643," sa y s Quint's address, declares that Mr. Daniell Maud and 
Mary his wife shall have a certain house, "provided he continue 
amongst us teacher or pastor, if it please God to call him to it." 
Dover was settled in 1623, and after 1633 some kind of worship 
was maintained, but there was great disorder, Episcopalian and 
Baptist ministers, against whom disgraceful charges were made, 
being prominent in ecclesiastical affairs. In 1638, in December, 

* Portsmouth had Episcopal worship much earlier. 



THE church's history. 49 

probably, Captain Underhill, governor of the town, gathered a 
church and placed over it Hansard Knollys, a Baptist. In 1640 
Thomas Larkham, a zealous member of the church of England, 
raised a party against Knollys. I'nderhill was a turbulent man, 
who had been banished from Massachusetts on charges of heresy 
and immorality, and the people, disgusted with him and his pastors, 
applied to Massachusetts for a minister. In response to this re- 
quest, the Rev. Daniel Maud, already mentioned, was sent to Dover 
and became the first regularly settled minister of the town in 
1641-42. The foregoing statement is confirmed by a seventeenth 
century authority, Captain Edward Johnson's "Wonder Working 
Providence," which was published in 1654. The author lived near 
Boston, and evidently kept himself well informed as to what was 
going on all over New England. He says, after mentioning the 
application and its being granted, that, 

"They (the people of Dover) have been partakers of the benefit hitherto, 
having also the benefit of some ministers to preach unto them till it pleased 
God to fit stones by the continual hewing of his word for his temple work, and 
they gathered a church according to the rule of the word, and called to (the) 
office of pastor one Mr. Maude both godly and diligent in the work." 

Then follows a brief description of Dover's river privileges and 
timber resources, which appears to show that Captain Johnson had 
been on the spot. Dr. Quint's address furnished no facts to refute 
this contemporary author. It has also been noted by some that 
there were signs of a break or at least delay in the succession of 
pastors later in the seventeenth century, between the death of the 
younger Reyner and the installation of the Rev. John Bike. I shall 
not insist on this, however, as I think I have shown that the three 
oldest churches are so nearly alike in regard to their early history, 
as to be placed pretty much on the same footing. Her two sisters 
cannot afford to deny Exeter the same consideration that they 
demand for themselves. 

The Reorganization. 

The long and able, though much hampered pastorate of Mr. 
Dudley, had taught the people of Exeter the value of a settled 
ministry. They were also better able to support as well as ap- 



50 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

predate a pastor. The forests were being cleared and families of 
wealth, such as the Gilmans, Folsoms and Coffins, had come in. 
Mills had been built and a brisk river business with Portsmouth and 
points beyond had started. The citizens of Exeter were generally 
religious, and the spirit of the original settlers was as devout as that 
of the colonists of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. If some of 
the later comers were more secular, or even "lewd fellows of the 
baser sort," they were in the minority in both numbers and in- 
fluence. Hence, when it was found in 1693 that Elder Wentworth 
could no longer serve it, the town resolved to have a permanent 
minister. On the 23rd of June, Counsellor John Oilman and 
Biley Dudley, the latter a son of the deceased minister, were chosen 
to visit the neighboring ministers and consult them as to a choice. 
They no doubt received definite advice, for they soon announced 
Mr. John Clark — some authorities affix an e to the name, and some, 
the Harvard triennial among others — omit it. He was a grand- 
nephew of the late Mr. Dudley on his mother's side and son of 
Nathaniel Clark, a prominent citizen of Newbury, Mass., ancestor 
of most of the name in this vicinity.* A new committee, consisting 
of Mr. Gilman, the Hon. Peter Coffin, and Mr. Robert Wadleigh,. 
was then authorized to arrange with Mr. Clark regarding a settle- 
ment, and having reported progress, was later empowered to settle 
the terms of a preliminary trial of six months. This proved suc- 
cessful, and on the strength of it, Mr. Clark took unto himself a wife. 
The chief statistics of his life may here be given. Born 1670, he 
was graduated from Harvard College in the class of 1690, ranking 
socially ninth in a class of twenty- two members. Married June 19, 
1694, at Newcastle, Miss, or as she was called, Mrs. Elizabeth 
Woodbridge, daughter of the Rev. Benjamin Woodbridge, who was 
nephew of the Benjamin Woodbridge, who, graced by honorary 
degrees from both Harvard and Oxford, heads the first class ever 
graduated from Harvard, that of 1642. Her mother was a 
daughter of the Rev. John Ward, of Haverhill, Mass., son of the 
once famous Nathaniel Ward, of Ipswich, author of the "Simple 
Cobbler of Agawam," and the "Body of Liberties," which last 

* Bell's History; Clark's Descendants of Nathaniel Clark, of Newbury; J. W. Dean's De- 
scendants of Thomas Deane. 



the church's history. 51 

formed the basis of the constitution of Massachusetts. Her father 
was a son of • the Rev. John Woodbridge and Mercy, daughter of 
Governor Dudley, and sister of Anne Bradstreet, New England's 
early poetess. The Rev. John Cotton, of Hampton, officiated at 
the nuptials, after a fashion which would create a sensation in our 
day. He preached the young couple a sermon, which I have seen, 
and which fills about thirty printed pages. It is entitled "A Meet 
Help, a Wedding Sermon," and has three texts. One of these 
enforces purity on the bride in very peremptory tones ; the second 
is not less emphatic in warning the groom against infidelity to his 
vows, while the third is more general. These texts would seem 
more appropriate to the inmates of a reformatory than to a grave 
young minister and a minister's daughter. Tastes change, and wo 
do not have long sermons at nineteenth century weddings. Either 
from great caution on both sides, or perhaps on account of the 
delicate health of Mr. Clark, he was not installed until September, 
1698, and as he died in 1705 of consumption, his ministry was of 
brief duration. He was much beloved. The town paid his widow 
his salary for a full year, and built him a monument near the church, 
which some years later it repaired. It has now disappeared from 
view, but its chiselled tribute has been handed down : 

"A prophet lies under this stone, 
His words shall live, tho' he be gone, 
When preachers die what rules the pulpit gave 
Of living, are still preached from the grave. 
The faith and life which your dear Pastor taught 
Now in the grave with him, sirs, bury not." 

Few will regret that such doggerel lies several inches under earth, 
though the leveling of the graves in our yard about ninety years ago 
by the will of a single prominent citizen has obscured history, and 
was, though unintended, a grave wrong to relatives and friends. 

To return to the settlement. A new meeting-house was planned 
to be erected on the same lot as that now occupied by ourselves. 
As is usual in removals from one neighborhood to another, there 
were no doubt excited arguments pro and con, but, during the sixty 
years just ending, population was more and more centering about 



52 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

the mills at the falls. At an earlier date it had appropriated the 
higher ground where the first and second churches- were built. 
The new structure was not ready until December, 1696, and next 
came the vexatious and irritating problem of seating the congrega- 
tion according to their supposed social rank. Two referees from 
out of town were chosen, in order that impartiality might be 
practised. In case of disagreement they were authorized to select 
an umpire, and they were to have the advice of four prominent 
citizens as to the real standing of people. Among the four was 
the venerable William Moore before mentioned, who ought to be 
acquainted with his subject, as he had been in Exeter since 1639. 
More than a year passed, and yet the momentous question was not 
settled. So in February, 1698, a new committee, consisting of Mr. 
Moore, John Smart, Biley Dudley, Kinsley Hall, and Samuel and 
Moses Leavitt, put their shoulders to the wheel, having full power 
to do as they wished. It is pleasing to note that Messrs. Hall and 
Moses Leavitt were the first provided for. Mr. Hall placed himself, 
his wife and five children at the west door, and Mr. Leavitt and 
family sat next to Hall on the left. No plan of the building re- 
mains to tell us whether this selection was in the direction of self 
denial or of chief seats. As, however, several other prominent 
citizens had seats by the various doors, it is probable that locations, 
which promised to facilitate escape in the event of an Indian raid, 
were in favor. Mr. Clark was given a salary of ^70, one hundred 
acres of land in case he lived in town ten years, — the property to 
go to his heirs in the event of his previous death, — and he was 
promised a parsonage, the right to which he relinquished in 1699 
for an equivalent of ^100 in money. A few months later, a bell 
was bought, and the practice of morning, noon and nine o'clock at 
night ringing, still in vogue with slight modifications as to time, was 
established. 

But we have passed beyond the reorganization which it is our 
special object to commemorate to-day. On the 7th of September, 
Old Style, corresponding to the 17th according to our New Style 
reckoning, a solemn fast was observed. On the Sunday before the 
ordination the church was reorganized. The full account forms 
the earliest of our church records and is followed by a gap of forty- 



the church's history. 53 

five years. Not until 1755, the year after Elder Odlin's death, do 
parish entries begin.* 

Under the head of The Order of Proceedings in Gathering a 
Particular Church in Exeter, the church record says : 

" After conferring together, and being mutually satisfied in each other, we 
drew up a confession of faith, and the terms of the Covenant, which we all 
signed the Sabbath before ordination. And having sent for the Rev. Mr. T. 
Hale [who preached the ordination sermon] Mr. Woodbridge, Mr. Pike, Mr. 
Rolfe, Mr. Cotton and Mr. Toppan, who accordingly came; and on the 
twenty-first of September, 169s, Mr. Hale, Woodbridge, Pike and Cotton laid 
on hands, Mr. Pike praying before imposition of hands; Mr. Woodbridge 
gave the charge, Mr. Cotton gave the riyht hand of fellowship; and we were 
by the elders and messengers of the several churches owned as a church of 
Christ, and John Clark declared to be a minister of Christ Jesus. 

" Now follows the confession of faith and church covenant that was assented 
to and signed by those who embodied into a church. We believe in one only, 
eternal, living and true God, who is infinite and unchangeable in being, wis- 
dom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth, distinguished into, and 
subsisting in three glorious and undivided persons, who are the same in sub- 
stance and attributes, equal in power and glory; yet distinguished by their 
relative and personal properties into God the Father, God the Son, and God 
the I loly ( rhost. 

"That this God is the maker, preserver and govemour of all things in 
Heaven and earth; that Man, whom God made after his own image in knowl- 
edge, righteousness and holiness, by sin is deprived hereof, and made liable 
to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and unto eternal destruction. 

" We believe that when the fulness of time was come God, the Father, sent 
his only eternal son, Christ Jesus, true God and equal with the Father, to take 
upon him the nature of man, that consisting of and subsisting in two natures 
and one person, he might be a fit Mediator between God and man, and an 
efficacious Redeemer of God's elect; Who being the Prophet, Priest, and King 
of his church, suffered death, was buried and continued under the power of 
death for a time, rose again, ascended into Heaven with his body, wherewith 
he -its at the right hand of God, the Father, interceding for the faithful, and 
from whence he will come to judge the whole world at the last day. There 
shall be a resurrection of the just and unjust at the last day. 

"We believe that Christ hath sent his Holy Spirit to enlighten, call, renew, 
and sanctify all those that are given to Him, by His word; and that the bene- 
fits of Christ's mediation, as the pardon of sin, salvation and life eternal, &c, 
are to be obtained in the way of faith and repentance; and that Christ Jesus 

* There is one slight exception to the above statement regarding the church records. On 
September 24th, 1713. the church voted to name publicly members delinquent without cause in 
making up accounts with the deacon. 



54 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

hath appointed the signs and seals thereof, now, under the New Testament, 
Baptism and the Lord's Supper. 

"This God in Christ Jesus we take and avouch to be our God; and do 
covenant by the help of His Spirit and grace to cleave unto this God, whose 
name alone is Jehovah, as our chiefest good, and to the Lord Jesus by faith 
and gospel obedience, as becomes his covenant people forever. And we do 
solemnly promise and engage before God, Angels and men, to make the glo- 
rious gospel of Jesus Christ [even the Holy word of God] the rule of our walk 
and actions; and also duly to attend all those ordinances which Christ hath 
instituted in His Church and commanded to be attended by his people; and 
truly to countenance, and faithfully to submit to all regular dispensations of 
this Church of Christ, and to perform enjoined and respective duties to God 
and man, the Lord assisting." 

This agreement and creed is signed by the following persons : 

John Clark, Pastor. Thomas Dudley. 

John Gilman. John Scrivener. 

Peter Coffin. Nicholas Gilman. 

William Moore. Richard Glidden. 

Thomas Wiggin. *Elizabeth Gilman. 

Kinsley Hall. *Elizabeth Clark. 

Theophilus Dudley. Judith Wilson. 

Samuel Leavitt. Margaret Beal. 

Biley Dudley. *Sarah Dudley. 

*Moses Leavitt. *Deborah Sinkler. 

John Folsom. *Deborah Coffin. 
*Henry Wadleigh. Sarah Lowell. 

Jonathan Robinson. Mehitabel Smith. 

Seven of the above, whom we have starred, came from the Hamp- 
ton Church, as did, perhaps, afterwards, John Scribner, Mrs. Tipping, 
Goodwife Bean, Mrs. Mary Gilman, Mrs. Elinor Wadleigh, Sarah 
Sewal. 

Of this creed the late Mr. Byington said that it was an excellent 
one, and that he would like to use it with some slight modifications 
and additions. The list of the signers, who were apparently all 
members of some church, at least professed Christians, suggests the 
inquiry where the eighteen not dismissed from Hampton were 
members, on the supposition that some kind of church did not 
exist in Exeter during the past half century. A few of them were 
sons of the first settlers, while others had been residents of the town 
for fifty years or more. They must have had some previous oppor- 



the church's history. 55 

tunity of membership. If not in Hampton, where else but Exeter? 
Portsmouth and Dover were both too far off for any regular attend- 
ance. The heading given to the Council is in striking verbal 
accord with that bestowed by Johnson on Mr. Maud's church at 
Dover. Do the words mean the same thing in the two cases? 

Mr. Clark was very popular, and everyone mourned when he died 
July 25, 1705. He had three sons and a daughter. Benjamin, 
the oldest son, married a sister of Sir William Pepperell, went to 
sea, and died comparatively young, but left children. Nathaniel 
died a young man and childless. Ward, who was minister of 
Kingston from 1725 to 1737, lost his wife and two children by the 
terrible throat distemper of 1735. Deborah married Dr. Thomas 
Deane, Exeter's oldest permanent physician, and became the ances- 
tor of the Deanes, once so numerous in this town. The Gardners 
are her descendants in the female line. She lost four children 
within four weeks of the throat distemper, the extent of whose rav- 
ages can be estimated from the fact that of the first forty patients 
in Kingston none recovered. Of 1 13 deaths in that town 96 were 
of children under 10. The disease was a very malignant type of 
diphtheria. 

Of the many stones in our churchyard — the third yard in histori- 
cal succession ; the first being near the original church in the 
Furnald neighborhood, and the second that behind the gas house — 
the only one visible is that of the wife of the Rev. John Hale, of 
Beverly, Mass. After the death of Nathaniel Clark, father of the 
Rev. John, his mother married Mr. Hale and on her death she was 
buried in Exeter. The stone, which is scarcely legible, reads 

" Mrs. Elizebeth Hale, Relict of ye Reverend 

Mr. John Hale, Late Pastor of y e church in 

Beverly and Sometime wife to Nathaniel 

Clark Esq Late of Newbury Dec'd, who died 

March ye 15, 1716 aged 71 years." 

The Odlins. 

On the death of Mr. Clark, the town appointed a committee to 
look after ministerial supplies until August 31, when a day of 
humiliation was observed. The original committee was then en- 



56 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

larged to provide preaching for three months, and in November, 
the first committee was empowered to search for and recommend a 
permanent pastor for the town's approval. On the first Monday of 
April, 1706, the town ratified the committee's selection of Mr. John 
Odlin, of Boston, and a larger committee, including that which had 
found the man, was entrusted with the arrangement of terms, Mr. 
Odlin having accepted the call. His salary was to be ,£70 a year, 
with the use of the parsonage lands and meadows, a settlement of 
^100 to be paid within a year in three installments; ^5 a year 
for wood, and any money contributed by chance attendants on 
public service. 

As Mr. Odlin's pastorate lasted over forty-eight years, and was 
characterized by events which shook the religious and social insti- 
tutions of the town to their foundations, it seems expedient to 
interrupt the course of our narrative with a few biographical facts 
and a brief survey of the religious conditions of his day. He was 
born in Boston, November 18, 1681, and was the grandson of John 
Odlin, a cutler, who was disarmed during the antinomian excite- 
ment, and the son of Elisha Odlin, one of the deacons of the Third 
or Old South Church. Of Elisha, his fellow deacon, Judge Samuel 
Sewall writes in his diary under date of September 14, 1724. 

"Last night died my good old Christian neighbor and friend Mr. 
Elisha Odlin, sensible and calm to the very last. He was born 
July 1, 1640, upon the same lot in Newbury street, where he all 
along lived and now died in the 85th year of his age." Judge 
Sewall was also one of his bearers. John Odlin was a member of 
the class of 1702 in Harvard College, and his name was placed 
eighth in a class of thirteen, according to the prevailing system of 
thus indicating a student's social position. Just how soon, after 
the negotiation, mentioned above, he began preaching in Exeter, 
is not known. He was not ordained until the 12 th of November, 
1706, but on the preceding 21st of October he was married to Mrs. 
Clark, the widow of his predecessor, at whose house he boarded. 
Unless his courtship was an unusually rapid one, he must have lived 
with her several months, and of course supplied the pulpit during 
that time. His first wife was mother of all his children, viz. : First, 
John, a deacon of his father's church, sometimes called Captain John, 



the church's history. 57 

born November, 4, 1 707. He was married, but left only daughters, 
so that he did not perpetuate the name. He died, according to 
Rogers's diary, July 15th, 17S2. Second, Elisha, born November 16, 
1709; a graduate of Harvard in 1731, for a time a resident of 
Exeter, where he filled various town offices, and later minister of 
Amesbury, where he died in 1752. His children were brought to 
this town, and from one of them were descended the families of 
Odlins, a half century ago so numerous in Exeter. Third, Dudley, a 
physician, born September 22, 1711, died unmarried February 13, 
1748. He built the house now occupied by Mrs. Charles H. Bell ; 
his father's dwelling standing on the site of Mrs. B. L. Merrill's 
residence.* Fourth, Samuel, died in his infancy, being born and 
dying in August i, 17 14. Fifth, Woodbridge, born April 28, 1718, 
a Harvard graduate of 1738, and later colleague with his father. 

Mrs. Odlin died December 6, 1729, and on the 22nd of the 
following September her husband married Mrs. Elizabeth Briscoe, 
a daughter of Samuel Leavitt, and the widow, first, of Captain 
James Dudley, a son of the Rev. Samuel Dudley, and now the oc- 
cupant of the solitary riverside grave on Mr. Carlisle's land, on the 
Newmarket road, nearly a mile below the village, and, second, of 
Captain Robert Briscoe, who lived with his wife on the Leavitt 
estate, now owned and occupied by the Gilmans on the easterly 
side of the river. The second Mrs. Odlin died January 23, 1754, 
ten months before her husband. 

Mr. Odlin seems to have inherited wealth, and to have added to 
what was bequeathed him. He was a large land owner in Brent- 
wood as well as Exeter, and one of the proprietors of Gilmanton, 
and his frequent prominence at councils and conventions, as well 
as the publication of one or more of his sermons, shows that he 
was a leading man in ecclesiastical circles. This is indicated by 
our New England manual of precedence — the Harvard Triennial. 
Elisha was placed seventh in a class of thirty-three members, while 
Woodbridge stood sixth in a class of thirty-two. Their father, as 

* Dr. Dudley Odlin, though he died prematurely, seems to have held a high position. One 
evidence of this is the inscription of his death on the silver waiter of the Hon. Theodore Atkin- 
son, of Portsmouth, an honor carefully restricted. The Rev. Daniel Rogers called upon him in 
his last illness in spite of his being the son of a hostile pastor. See Brewster's Rambles about 
Portsmouth, second series, p. 64. 



58 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

will soon appear, combined integrity with tenacity, not to say ob- 
stinacy of purpose, a frequent characteristic of the Odlin race 
down to our own day. 

A Gathering Storm. 

Up to 1740, a period of thirty-four years, Mr. Odlin's pastorate 
had been peaceful, and almost perfect harmony seems to have ex- 
isted between himself and his people. There is evidence of this in 
the frequency and liberality of the additions to his salary, though 
they were in part only just compensations for a rapidly declining 
currency. There are other proofs of his wide influence and of the 
great respect in which he was held, but on these it is unneccessary 
to enlarge. Of specially exciting events there were few after the 
peace of 17 13, except the earthquake of 1727 ; the completion of 
the fourth meeting-house in 1731, and the sore throat epidemic of 
1735. Newmarket had been set off as a new parish in October, 
1727, but for several years later it seems to have been in some way 
dependent on Exeter. 

" The First Parish in Exeter" held a meeting in November, 1728, 
at which it was resolved to build a new meeting-house very nearly 
on the same site as that occupied by our present structure. A year 
later it was decided that there should be two galleries, one above 
the other, and as many pews constructed as there were persons 
willing to buy. The house was to be sixty by forty-five feet. 

In the town meeting of March, 1730, those inhabitants of the 
First parish desirous of having a steeple were authorized to build 
and put up one by private subscription. The building was first 
occupied on the 28th of August, 1731 — Thanksgiving day. The 
Folsom family even at this early day had become noted as builders, 
for John Folsom was the master workman. The pews, thirty or 
more in number, had been previously sold at prices that look very 
high, but the currency was much depreciated, so the ^21, the 
largest amount received, was hardly half that sum in gold. These 
pews ran round the sides of the auditorium, and there were also ten 
similar "reserved seats" in the lower gallery. The steeple was 
subscribed for and built by thirty-nine well to do citizens, who, in 
1739, sold it to the town for just what it had cost — ^115. This 



the church's history. 59 

steeple blew down in 1775, and was replaced at town expense. 
When the new house was completed, the old one, which stood by 
its side, and in which the people had continued to worship, 
was taken down and built into a town hall, which stood pretty 
nearly where Court street now ends in Front street between the 
Boardman property and the Squamscott House. The new church 
building seems to have been not quite satisfactory in one respect, 
since, in 1733 trie town authorized any person to lower the pulpit 
eighteen' inches at his own expense, provided the pulpit was left in 
as good order as it now was.* Instead of a clock, an hour glass 
was bought to stand upon the pulpit. The real town clock of that 
day was a tall one, bought in England for Mr. Odlin by Governor 
Benning Wentworth, and now owned by Dr. W. G. Perry. It 
stood in the pastor's house, where all who wanted to know the time 
of day looked in and set their watches, if they had any. The town 
bell was no doubt timed by this ancient chronicler of hours and 
minutes. 

While all appeared to be harmony, a change came, fully to un- 
derstand which we must look into Mr. Odlin's surroundings, so 
different from our own day. In 1740, and indeed for nearly eighty 
years subsequent, though there was some relaxation after the Revo- 
lution, church and state were legally and minutely united. This 
was easy while there was only one denomination, but when sects 
multiplied dissatisfaction ensued, and in 18 19 church and state were 
severed. 

In the first half of the eighteenth century, all the inhabitants of 
New England, with very few exceptions, were convinced Congre- 
gationalists. The towns were divided into parishes, and every male 
or female adult was taxed for ministerial support as much as for 
that of the government. The question of the amount of the eccle- 
siastical rate came up at every town meeting, and the man who 
failed to pay the minister's tax was liable to a seizure of his goods 
and imprisonment for debt, if his assets failed to produce the re- 
quired amount. In those days settled ministers were unquestion- 
ably the autocrats of church and town. Frequently in the seven- 
teenth and eighteenth centuries they were taxed on a different 

* Bell's History, p. 179-82. 



60 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

basis from other citizens, and their word was law on many other 
than theological subjects. 

Ostensibly the high Calvinistic doctrines of the Pilgrims and 
Puritans were everywhere preached, yet there had been a change, 
a letting down in rigidity, and unhappily an abatement of fervor in 
many places. A few earnest men mourned in the last half of the 
seventeenth century that the children had fallen from the level of 
their fathers, but they were unheard, and the multitude welcomed 
the decision of the Synod of 1662, that a special belief that one 
had been converted and an approach to the Lord's table were not 
necessary to having his children baptized, provided he "owned the 
covenant," and was of orderly life. Even adults could be bap- 
tized without professing conversion or becoming communicants. 
This Half Way covenant, as it was called, proved to be a soporific to 
many consciences, and was long a bane to the churches in New 
England. To this easy going practice was added a kind of spiritual 
slothfulness on the part of many ministers. There was not so much 
a denial of the old fashioned doctrines, as a dislike to look into 
them, dulling of their edges when cited and an increase of emphasis 
on the importance of a good life, without reference to any doc- 
trines at all. The conservatives of the day called their latitu- 
dinarian brethren Arminians, though a denial of predestination did 
not necessarily prove fatal to pungency, as John Wesley and his 
followers were soon to prove. The new departure men of the day 
preferred to be known as moderate Calvinists, and to this class 
John Odlin apparently belonged. Some of his manuscript sermons 
are described by those who have read them in the light of modern 
ideas, to be orthodox enough in their doctrinal outlines, but, judged 
by his actions, he was content with an unimpassioned presentation 
of Biblical truths, and a calm and regular discharge of his pastoral 
duties ; having no tolerance for what he deemed "enthusiasm." 

As it was in Exeter, so was it throughout New England, during 
the comparatively prosperous years which followed the conclusion 
of the "Queen Anne" war in 17 13. The colonies had no wars to 
agitate them ; Indian atrocities had ceased, except in frontier dis- 
tricts ; trade was increasing ; the churches in most towns were 
freed from any denominational competition ; the standard of public 



THE CHURCH'S HISTORY. 6l 

morals was fairly high ; open unbelief was scarcely heard of, and 
all the machinery of religion was in fair working order. Yet 
earnest religious life was becoming more and more rare. Except 
for the great earthquake of 1727, which scared hundreds into the 
churches, only in many cases to show that fear, not penitence, had 
driven them there, there were few conversions. There was wide 
spread torpor, mourned by an earnest few. Deep convictions, 
which God's spirit can alone arouse, were lacking. The ice was 
first broken in the winter of 1734-5, after the preaching of a series 
of solemnly doctrinal sermons by Jonathan Edwards, at North- 
ampton, Mass. One of the first converts was a young lady who 
had been a leader in gayety, and whose change of life surprised 
everyone. The work soon spread among old and young, until there 
were over three hundred converts in Northampton alone. The 
interest extended to many towns in western Massachusetts and 
Connecticut, but seems largely to have been confined to that region. 
Published accounts were circulated, however, and no doubt reached 
those in Exeter who were hoping for a like blessing from on high.* 
It is not unlikely that a conviction may have reached some of 
Mr. Odlin's people, after they had read the news from North- 
ampton, that there was something lacking in the food which he 
dispensed to them, but there is no record of any dissatisfaction, 
and he still reigned supreme over all his original parish, save New- 
market, which had been set off in 1727, and provided with a church 
a few years later. The pastor was approaching his sixtieth year 
and began to feel the need of a colleague. His youngest son, 
YVoodbridge, had been educated at Harvard, by verbal tradition 
partly at the expense of the town, though I have failed to discover 
any recorded confirmation of the fact, and had then studied 
divinity. It was the general, though it appears not the universal 
feeling, that he was the best man to assist his father. On the 4th 
of January, 1741, a paper was numerously signed, requesting Mr. 
Woodbridge Odlin to become assistant to his "honored father." 
Some of the signers were persons who within two years seceded 
from the church, partly on the ground that the Odlins did not 
preach the full gospel. Whether there were other candidates for 

* Tracy's Great Awakening; Edwards's Narrative of Surprising Conversions. 



62 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

the place, does not appear, but that the invitation was an influen- 
tial one is evident from the fact that the young man declined to 
receive a call which the people of Biddeford, Maine, were about to 
make him, and turned from his chances in many other places in 
which he had preached. So said town agents Nicholas Perryman, 
James Oilman, and Zebulon Giddinge in their successful protest to 
the colonial legislature of 1744, against the establishing of a new 
parish in Exeter. 

George Whitefield. 

The cause of this change of base must now be set forth. 
It is unnecessary to say more of the Rev. George Whitefield 
than that he was born in England, in December, 1714, was 
educated at Oxford, where he was allied with the Wesleys and the 
other founders of Methodism, passed through deep religious convic- 
tions ; became an evangelist, preaching with unequalled eloquence, 
including Benjamin Franklin, Lord Chesterfield and David Hume 
among his admirers, and with a frequency that would appall most 
preachers ; that he several times crossed the Atlantic and drew 
unprecedented crowds to hear him wherever he preached, from 
Maine to Georgia, and died, worn out with his labors, at Newbury- 
port, September 30, 1770, having preached his last sermon in 
Exeter on the preceding day. His first visit to New England 
began September 14, 1740, when he landed at Newport, R. I., and 
reached Boston on the evening of the 18th. He was then not 
quite 26 years of age, full of holy zeal, very trustful of his fellow 
men, not prudent in all his methods, and having the habit of record- 
ing events and feelings in a journal, which was printed in install- 
ments, with a fearlessness that eventually gave him much trouble. 
He was not faultless, but a more thoroughly consecrated and im- 
pressive preacher never lived.* 

* The literature regarding Whitefield is abundant. Gillies, Belcher, Philip and Tyerman are 
among his biographers. His own journals and "The Life and Times of Salina, Countess of 
Huntingdon" also supply many details. He was satirized in an indecent farce by the comic 
actor Foote and in the Rev. Richard Graves's ''Spiritual Quixote," which, however, was more 
an attack on his work than himself. Benjamin Franklin and David Hume have also furnished 
interesting and, on the whole, laudatory pictures of him. For a keen reproof of one of his possi- 
ble mistakes by a warm disciple, the Rev. Nicholas Gilman, see Arthur Gilman's Oilman 
Family, p. 61. 



THE CHURCH'S HISTORY. 



63 



Ctwper well describes him in these oft quoted lines : 

"Leuconomus (beneath well sounding Greek 
1 slur a name a poet must not speak) 
Stood pilloried on infamy's high stage, 
And bore the pelting scorn of half an ago, 
I he very butt of slander, and the blot 
For every dart that malice ever shot. 

* 
Now, Truth, perform thy office; waft aside 
The curtain drawn by prejudice and pride, 
Reveal (the man is dead) to wondering eyes 
This more than monster in his proper guise. 
He loved the world that hated him; the tear 
That dropp'd upon Ids Bible was sine 
Assailed by scandal and the tongue of strife, 
Hi only an>wcr was a blameless life; 
And he that forged, and he that threw the dart, 
Had each a brother's interest in his heart. 

Paul's love of Christ, and steadiness unbribed, 

\\ , re copied close in him and well transcribed. 

He followed Paul; his zeal a kindred flame, 

His apostolic charity the same. 

Like him, crossd cheerfully tempestuous s 

Forsaking country, kindred, friends and ease; 

Like him he labored, and like him content 

To bear it, suffered shame where'er he went. 

blush, calumny '. and write upon his tomb, 

If honest eulogy can spare thee 1 

Thy deep repentance of thy thousand lies, 

Which aimed at him have pierced the offended skies; 

And say, Blot out my sin, confessed, deplored, 

Against thine image in thy Saint, O Lord ! " 

Whitefield's success in Boston was astonishing. The churches 
where he preached were crammed to overflowing. Most of the 
ministers, and even the Governor, were at his beck and call, and 
he had 8,000 hearers when he preached on the common. He went 
out to Cambridge and addressed the college students, then num- 
bering about 100. He was well received, but did not like all that 
he saw and very injudiciously made known the fact in his Journal. 
He found a low state of morals and poor discipline; that the 
tutors neglected to pray with the students, and that the young men 



64 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

read bad books. More foolishly still he publicly affirmed that 
there were a good many unconverted ministers around Boston. 
This was unbecoming in a young man, and showed something like 
a conviction of his own infallibility. Yet by the time his labors 
ended about thirty ministers confessed that they had no experi- 
mental knowledge of the truth they preached until they heard Mr. 
Whitefield. Among these was Daniel Rogers, who was destined to 
exert a strong influence on the religious life of Exeter, where his 
last thirty-seven years were passed. He was possessed of some 
property, was a grandson of President Rogers of Harvard College, a 
son of the Rev. John Rogers, pastor of the First church at Ipswich, 
Mass., a brother of Nathaniel, his father's colleague, and of another 
John Rogers, pastor at Kittery, Maine. Daniel and a sister, after- 
wards Mrs. Coggswell, were twins and were born August 8, 1707 — 
New Style. He was a member of the Harvard class of 1725. His 
brother Samuel and his cousin Daniel, later minister of Littleton, 
Ma>s., were his classmates, as were also the Tory punster, the Rev. 
Mather Byles, the Rev. James Pike, of Somersworth, and the Rev. 
Timothy Walker, one of the founders of Concord and first pastor 
of the town. The young Rogerses belonged to what Dr. Holmes 
called the Brahmin caste of New England, and were placed third, 
fourth and fifth in a class of forty-five members. Our Daniel had 
the highest place of the three. After his graduation he became a 
tutor at Harvard, and his earlier journals show him to have been a 
young man of social habits, specially fond of fish dinners, and a 
frequent visitor among the best families of Boston and Cambridge. 
He was licensed to preach, and filled pulpits on Sundays at Andover, 
Marlborough and other places, earning as high as ninety pounds a 
vear, but often finding it hard to collect his pay. He seems to have 
been somewhat easy going until the time of Whitefield's first visit, 
when he and all his family became devoted followers of the evan- 
gelist. Whitefield stopped at Ipswich on his way to Portsmouth, 
and was the guest of the elder Mr. Rogers, who, he was glad to 
know, was a descendant of his namesake the martyr, a claim that 
has latterly been discredited. He preached to several thousand 
people there, and says in his journal " the Lord gave me freedom, 
and there was a great melting in the congregation." Old Mr. 



THE CHURCH'S HISTORY. 65 

Rogers was ever after his friend. July 2, 1743, being unable to be 
present at an assembly of divines in Boston, he sent a written at- 
testation in favor of Whitefield and Tennent. He died December 
28, 1745, in his eightieth year. 

Early in life, Daniel began to keep diaries in interleaved alma- 
nacs, chiefly those of Nathaniel Ames, which to-day seem hardly 
less curious than the manuscript records inserted in them. He 
maintained the practice about as long as he lived. Many of them 
have been lost and others burned in a fire. Their entries largely 
relate to the weather, but give no thermometrical figures, but occa- 
sionally they refer, though very briefly, to interesting events. The 
earliest which exists is that for 1730. Next come 1732, 1734, 
1737 and 1738. Thence there is a hiatus until 1748. He tells of 
his settlement here, but for his early relations with Whitefield we 
must depend on the testimony of other persons. 

On July 13th, 1742, Mr. Rogers was ordained as an evangelist — 
"a vagrant preacher," his opponents said, at York, Maine. Fleet's 
paper, the Boston livening Post, of November 2 2d, alleged that he 
called the elders and pretended messengers of some of the neigh- 
boring churches to ordain him to be a vagrant preacher to the peo- 
ple of God in this land, contrary to the peace of our Lord, the 
King and head of His church, and to the good order and constitu- 
tion of the churches in New England as established by the platform. 

The Post gives the initials of the officiating ministers, who seem 
to have been Mr. Moody of York, Wise of South Berwick, John 
Rogers of Kittery, and G — m, possibly Oilman of Durham. The 
action was very unusual, since the Cambridge platform authorized 
only pastoral ordinations.* Mr. Rogers's relatives, however, all 
sanctioned what he had done. We shall have occasion to renew 
his acquaintance and quote his later diaries a little further on. 

Whitefield, after leaving Boston in 1740, did not visit Exeter. 
He came very near it, however, preaching successively at Newbury- 
port, Hampton and Portsmouth at the beginning of October. At 
the last named town he says he had "a polite auditory, but so very 
unconcerned that I began to question whether I had been speak- 
ing to rational or brute creatures." He was a little dejected, but 

* Tracy's Great Awakening, p. 330. 



66 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

adds : "God, to comfort my heart, sent a young man crying out in 
great anguish of spirit : 'What shall I do to be saved?' " He thence 
went to York, where he found a sympathizing friend in the pastor, 
the Rev. Samuel Moody. Returning to Portsmouth, he had much 
better success than on his first visit, and at Hampton was not so 
much impeded in his utterance by a high wind, as at his previous 
service in that place. 

It has come down orally that quite a number of Mr. Odlin's lead- 
ing church members attended some of these impassioned meetings, 
and were powerfully affected, as were all who listened to him, by the 
great evangelist. It is said that one man, in wealth and official 
dignity, perhaps, the leading citizen of our town, literally rolled in 
the dust in agony of soul as the sharp arrows of conviction struck 
him. Many others were as deeply affected, and Mr. Odlin was 
earnestly besought to give the evangelist an opportunity to speak. 
This was refused and preachers favoring the awakening were also 
excluded from the pulpit, for the senior Odlin was unequivocally 
opposed to the work of Whitefield, and his son was found to side 
with his father. What one party esteemed a glorious work of grace 
was set down by the other as hurtful enthusiasm. There is no 
doubt that Whitefield's attack on the college whence both the 
Messrs. Odlin had graduated exerted an influence, but the criti- 
cisms on the father's preaching must have frozen any sympathy 
which either felt for the new ways. When an old parishioner and 
friend assures his pastor, twenty years his senior, that he had never 
heard the gospel until it was proclaimed by a young Englishman, 
he cannot be surprised if the minister does not appear anxious to 
share in the benefits of the recently discovered gospel method. 

Mr. Odlin, the majority of the inhabitants of Exeter, and many 
very respectable ministers were of the same opinion. They were 
suspicious of Whitefield as an Englishman and Episcopalian, for 
denominational fences were much higher then than now. His new 
methods seemed as wild as did those of the Salvation Army when its 
movements began, to conservatives of our own day. Pastors were 
then rulers of their parishes, and resented all intrusion upon them. 
Whitefield had no regard for barriers of any kind, believing him- 
self called to preach the gospel everywhere by an authority superior 



THE church's history. 67 

to all human laws. In the interval between 1740 and 1743 the 
Exeter parish had twice been weakened by the long resisted estab- 
lishment of Epping in 1 74 1, and Brentwood in 1742,* as distinct 
parishes, and subsequently Exeter lost a goodly amount in minis- 
terial taxes. This did not put her citizens in good humor. The 
agitation by the disaffected followers of Mr. Whitefield, and their 
demands for innovations on the old ways added to this wrathfulness. 
The majority were sure that the minority would split the church, 
and the seceders certainly said and did much that did not accord 
with loyalty to their pastor, or with the time honored polity of New 
England, and sometimes, it must be confessed, with the charity 
that "thinketh no evil." Unless justified by the goodness of their 
cause, they were a fractious minority. 

There was reason for this arraignment. To mention an instance 
near at hand, the neighboring church in Stratham had been thrown 
into disorder by those who complained of the want of sympathy 
with the revival shown by the Rev. Henry Rust, the first settled 
minister of the town. Many withdrew to enjoy the ministrations 
of Mr. Joseph Adams, an ardent evangelical. The conflict was 
sharp for some years. Mr. Rust and his adherents tried to prevent 
the formation of a second church by legal measures, but in vain. 
Mr. Adams was ordained in 1747, and two years later Mr. Rust 
died. By 1756 both parties had cooled down enough to make 
concessions to each other, and reunited under Mr. Adams as 
minister of the whole town, a position which he enjoyed for nearly 
thirty years. In 1742 all was turmoil, with many fanatical excesses 
in various places. For these Whitefield was not responsible, but they 
caused doubts to spring up in the minds of many who had sympa- 
thized warmly with the awakening, while they gave opportunity to 
its opponents to confuse good and bad in their censorious judg- 
ment. The Rev. Nicholas Oilman, Jr., a native of Exeter, was an 
ardent supporter of the revival. He was settled at Durham in 
1742, but in a few years became carried away with excitement, 

*The opposition to the setting off of Brentwood was especially bitter and protracted, and the 
differences as to the location of a church between the residents of different sections of Brentwood 
weakened their cause and delayed its success. For the full documents in the case, see Provin- 
cial Papers, Vol. IX, and for a connected narrative B. A. Dean's Annals of the Brentwood 
Church and Parish. 



68 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

allying himself with wild fanatics, and finally dying of consumption 
in 1740, at the age of 40. He is buried in Exeter, in the old 
cemetery on upper Front street. His extravagances no doubt 
kept his father, Judge Nicholas Oilman, from joining the seceders, 
to whom all, or nearly all, of his sons had allied themselves.* 

No concession being shown on either side, the lines of demarca- 
tion were soon sharply drawn in Exeter. During 1741 and 1742 
some futile attempts were made to reach a basis of agreement, but 
it was in vain to quote the conclusions of church polity to men who 
believed that the Holy Spirit had made new disclosures to them. 
The more radical Whitefieldians did not hesitate to assert that Mr. 
Odlin did not preach the gospel, and that he and his son were 
wicked opposers of a glorious work of grace. They even thought 
it wrong to attend the preaching of either. 

On the other hand, the supporters of the Odlins could call atten- 
tion to the fanaticism of James Davenport and other professed imi- 
tators of Whitefield. The crazy Davenport — he afterwards recov- 
ered his senses and recanted — was arrested at Boston for declaring 
that the greatest part of the ministers of that city were carnal and 
unconverted, and leading their people blindfold down to hell. He 
escaped punishment on account of his obvious insanity. In Con- 
necticut the New Lights, as they were called, were making confu- 
sion in many parishes, and setting up conventicles of their own. 
Harvard, and a little later Yale College, which had been much 
stirred up by the imprudent utterances of Whitefield's published 
journals, had declared against the revival. Dr. Chauncy, one of 
the ablest ministers of Boston, had struck heavily at it in his Sea- 
sonable Thoughts, while Jonathan Edwards published a strong book 
on the other side. The Awakening had lost some of its aggressive 
force by 1743, though it maintained a vigorous, defensive warfare 
in the communities in which it had gained the upper hand. On 

* For an account of Nicholas Gilman's extravagancies see Tracy, p. 336. His descendant 
Arthur Gilman, in his "Gilman History," gives only the favorable events of his career, which 
was very creditable until he lost his mental but not moral balance. He was a member of the 
Harvard class of 1724 and interleaved and annotated a biennial catalogue of 1733. Sibley, in the 
preface to his "Harvard Graduates, 1 '' says of these memoranda, "They were very brief and 
not always correct; but of some graduates they furnish the only information that has been 
found." 



THE CHURCH'S HISTORY. 69 

the 25th of May, 1743, the General Convention of Congregational 
Ministers in Massachusetts met at Boston, and by skilful engineer- 
ing, adopted a report as the general conviction of that body, which 
testified strongly against errors in doctrine ; disorders in practice, 
such as the itinerancy of pastors and candidates; lay preaching; 
the ordination of evangelists ; separation from churches, etc. 1 1 
did not deny that under the operations of the Divine Spirit persons 
might become excited, but emphatically recommended continuance 
in the old churches and the old ways. It was signed by the Secre- 
tary, and left the impression that no one dissented from it. The 
friends of the revival, on rinding themselves made apparent cham- 
pions of a statement in which they did not believe, called a special 
convention of ministers for July 7 in the same city, to which sup- 
porters of the revival in and out of the state were invited. Nearly 
one hundred were present, the sessions covering the following day. 
Twenty-eight letters from absent sympathizers were also read. 
The revival was warmly indorsed, though the accompaniment of 
human frailties was admitted, and its beneficial results were de- 
scribed at length. The people were also warned against extrava- 
gances. The document, which in fervor and definiteness most fav- 
orably contrasted with the cold generalities of the May convention, 
had sixty-eight signers at the meeting, and forty- five absentees by 
letter. Other signatures came later, and a few of the signers ac- 
cepted the report in substance and with reservations. Many 
prominent names were appended from all over New England. 
New Hampshire furnished John Tucke, of Gosport; John Blunt, 
of Newcastle ; David McGregore, of Londonderry; Joshua Tufts, 
of Litchfield; Amos Main, of Rochester; Ward Cotton, of Hamp- 
ton ; James Pike, of Somersworth ; Joseph Adams, of Newington, 
and William Shurtleff, of Portsmouth. To these may be added 
Jeremiah Wise, of Berwick, Maine, as he will appear later in the 
narrative, and Jonathan Edwards, of Northampton, Mass.* The 
Messrs. Odlin were evidently sustained by the other New Hamp- 
shire ministers. There were one or two who tried to be friendly with 
both sides, but most were like Mr. Rogers's classmate, the Rev. 

* Tracy gives the actions of both conventions and also the full list of members and attestors. 



JO THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

Timothy Walker, of Concord,* whose only published sermon was 
specifically anti-Whitefieldian. 

On the whole, the second convention represented the best, 
because most Christian thought of New England, but it lacked the 
official prestige of the convention of May 25. Posterity, neverthe- 
less, has generally concluded that the truth was more nearly told 
in July 7 and 8. With all its drawbacks and blunders, the Great 
Awakening aroused New England from spiritual torpor and decorous 
formalism. 

By 1743, nearly, if not quite one third of the voters of Exeter 
were known as determined opponents of the settlement of Wood- 
bridge Odlin. They recognized him as a courteous gentleman, but 
believed that beneath a smooth exterior there was determined 
hostility to some fundamental doctrines of revelation. The ag- 
grieved minority held frequent conferences, and prayer meetings, 
and sought opportunities for hearing men of their own type of 
belief at home and abroad. The day for decided action came 
when at the annual town meeting, March 28, 1743, an article in- 
serted in the warrant on the petition of seventy-one voters was 
passed. It authorized the appointment of a committee to treat 
with Mr. Woodbridge Odlin on the question of his settlement. 
The committee consisted of Nicholas Gilman, Thomas Wilson, 
Benjamin Thing, James Leavitt, Stephen Lyford, James Gilman, 
and Nicholas Perryman. The committee was a strong one. Its 
chairman was 71 years old, a man of large property, a major and a 
judge. On the other side were his sons Samuel and Daniel, and 
his cousin, Colonel Peter Gilman. Mr. Perryman was Exeter's 
earliest and at the time perhaps her only lawyer. Messrs. Leavitt, 
Thing, Lyford and Wilson were all men of position and influence. 
On June 21, the Rev. Woodbridge Odlin accepted the town's in- 
vitation, his salary being ,£37, 10 shillings, lawful money; £$o 
yearly for the first four years of his settlement, and ^65 a year 
after his father's death, and the use of the parsonage. The salary 
of the elder Odlin was reduced to ,£50, but the town engaged to 
repair his house. The ordination was held on the 28th of the 

* In his diary for 1782, Mr. Rogers has the following marginal note not dated, " N. B. We 
have heard of Mr. Walker's death, my classmate, minister at Concord." 



the church's history. 71 

following September, the minority having appealed to the church 
members in vain for their interference or for the discussion of a 
reconsideration of the call. The senior pastor preached the ordi- 
nation sermon from Colossians, 1 : 28, ••Whom (Christ) we preach, 
warning every man in all wisdom ; that we may present every man 
perfect in Christ Jesus." 

At a meeting of the First church held November 16, 174 c to 
see what members of the separated brethren had to say before the 
church as matter of grievance they read a paper, which they refused 
to give to the pastor on the ground that they had no copy of it. 
The church demanded a copy, which wis promised, and the meet- 
ing adjourned. December 5, 174,}, it was proposed to the 
separates to hold a joint council, but this they refused, though it 
was repeatedly urged. A week later, the meeting having been 
adjourned to give them more time, thev still refused. The church 
then called the council of ten churches hereafter described.* 

The opposition had been beaten about two to one at the March 
town meeting, and had thereupon ceased attending the old church. 
But they were no more freed from pecuniary responsibility than 
would be any taxpayer at the present day who disapproved the 
erection of a new town hall or was opposed to the town's electric 
light contract. An extract from a warrant, issued in his Majesty's 
name to church rate payers in the colonial days, will show where 
the seceders found themselves: 

"And if any person or persons shall Neglect or Refuse to pay the sum or 

sums he, she or they are assessed in this list you — the collector — are to Distrain 
on the goods, chattels or Estate, of the Person or Persons so Neglecting or 
Refusing to the value thereof, and the Distress or Distresses so made you are 
to keep by the space of Four Days at the cost and charge of the owner or 
owners thereof, and if they do not pay the sum or sums within said Four Days 
then the said Distress or Distresses so taken you are to expose and openly to sell 
at Puhlick Vendue for the payment of the sum or sums and the incident 
charges." 

If any more money came from the sale it was to be returned to 
the delinquent, but where there were no goods and chattels the col- 
lector was "to seize the body or bodies of him, her or them so neg- 

* First Church records. 



72 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

lecting or refusing and commit them to the common goal of this 
county and there to remain till he, she or they pay the sum or sums 
whereat they are assessed, with the incident charges." The person 
thus committed could get out of jail only by payment or by an 
abatement of their tax by the Court of Quarter Sessions, but all de- 
linquent parties were to have fourteen days' notice before the dis- 
tresses were made, unless it was suspected they were planning to 
move away. The same statute continued to exist after independ- 
ence was achieved, but it was laxly enforced as sects multiplied, 
and before the repeal of 1819 was in a dying condition. 

Yet the severance of church and state was even then carried only 
by a small majority, and after a fierce struggle. The act declared 
that any denomination had the right to form societies empowered 
to levy taxes on the polls and estates of its members, but ruled 
that no person should be compelled to join or support or be 
classed with any church or religious society unless his express 
consent had been previously obtained. It was provided also that, 
after giving written notice of withdrawal to the clerk of a religious 
organization, the withdrawing member should no longer be liable 
for any of its future expenses. Compulsory membership in some one 
denomination no longer existed, though for many years the existing 
parishes, ours among them, continued to assess their members, 
instead of asking for their voluntary subscriptions, as at the present 
day. 

Meanwhile the seceders must render tribute to the Odlins, though 
they could not sit under their preaching. Forty-four voters had 
declared in writing against the settlement of the younger Odlin. 
They represented about one-third of the freeholders of the town, 
but in wealth and prestige a great deal more. Without indorsing 
the regularity of their proceedings, some of which were utterly in- 
compatible with church order, or accepting all their judgments, 
which were not always charitable, it was certainly very unwise and 
unjust to persist in ordaining Woodbridge Odlin in the face of so 
much conscientious objection. All hope of a readjustment was not 
immediately abandoned, though, according to the First church 
statement already quoted, the seceders fought shy of their former 
brethren. They declined a joint council, but had one of their own, 



THE CHURCH'S HISTORY. ?$ 

of which we have no full report, but which encouraged them to form 
a church and build a meeting-house. This they did.* The First 
church, as has been seen, or more strictly the town, for church and 
parish were in league, had its council of ten in January, 1743-4, 
but as both gatherings were exparte, each only influenced the 
side which called it. The churches called were the First of Kit- 
tery, Maine, and Andover, Mass. ; the Second and Third of Salem ; 
the First of Dover ; the First of Bradford, Mass., Nottingham, New- 
castle, Rye, and Second of Newbury, Mass. The meeting was held at 
Mr. Odlin's house. After prayer, "solemn prayer and supplication," 
the report says, the council adjourned to the meeting-house. 
Everything was of the cut and dried order, as nearly all of the 
ministers were open opponents of the revival. The seceders' 
council was condemned, and the reasons for the dissatisfied mem- 
bers' withdrawal, viz. : The refusal of the pastor to admit certain 
preachers into his pulpit ; his discountenancing the "subject of a 
glorious work of grace ;" the settlement of Woodbridge Odlin, and 
the pastor's refusal to call a church meeting, except on certain con- 
ditions, deemed objectionable by those who asked for it, were all 
pronounced insufficient, and the seceders' refusal to join in the 
present council was wrong and contumacious. Consequently, the 
pastor and the "standing brethren" were completely sustained. 
It will be observed that the churches of Portsmouth were not 
present at this council. They were known to sympathize with the 
revivalists and may have attended their exparte council. f 

At the March meeting of 1745, the seceders asked the town to 
release them from paying taxes, on the ground that the signers 
of the petition "could not sit under Mr. Odlin's preaching to 
spiritual satisfaction." They had erected a meeting-house at their 
own cost, and asked for relief from paying taxes to support the 
church they had left. Their request was denied, and in the follow- 
ing July they transferred their application to the colonial legislature 
at Portsmouth. Here it met with no better fate. The town ap- 
pointed Nicholas Perryman, James Gilman and Zebulon Giddinge 

* After a day of fasting and prayer, the New church was organized July 7, 1744. It is sur- 
prising not to find a mention of this in Prince's Christian History. 
t Council of ten churches. 



74 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

to oppose the petitioners, and they did so in a long paper which 
contains nothing additional to what has already been given in sub- 
stance. The original petition was signed by fifty-four persons and 
the replication to the town's remonstrance by Samuel and Peter 
Oilman, the first, oldest surviving son of Nicholas Gilman, chairman 
of the committee who engaged Woodbridge Odlin, and the latter his 
cousin. The fifty-four names appended to the petition doubtless 
included the forty-four men who voted against the younger Odlin, 
and some more.* 

The First church did not stop its efforts with the adjournment of 
the council. On March 4, 1744, Deacon Wilson, Nathaniel 
Bartlett, James Gilman, Zebulon Oiddinge and Joseph Wadleigh 
were appointed a committee to confer with a committee of the 
Separates to bring about a reconciliation, but nothing seems to 
have been effected.! 

The contest set families at variance. John Deane, a grandson of 
the first Mrs. John Odlin, was among the seceders. Benjamin 
Thing, appointed to serve on the committee which called the 
younger Odlin, seems to have changed his base, for he was one of 
the petitioners. Dr. Thomas Deane, father of John, and son-in-law 
of Mrs. Odlin, was at first quoted on both sides. Though his name 
does not appear on the petition, he is mentioned in 1755, as one of 
the members of the New parish in the act constituting it. John 
Phillips, then a young man of twenty-four, and husband of 
Nathaniel Gilman's widow, is half way down the list, as is also 
Nicholas Gilman, Jr., a younger brother of Peter. He was the 
founder of the seceders' Pious Use Fund, and was destined to die 
in 1746, nine years before the New parish had a legal existence. 
There are four Dudleys, three Folsoms and three Things among 
the signers, a fair proportion of those well known families, then so 
numerous, but indicating that many of their relatives were on the 
other side. Of the then almost numberless Gilmans, there being 
four Daniels and about as many Nathaniels, with a liberal sprinkling 
of Nicholases, Trueworthys, Calebs and Jameses, the secession 
carried, perhaps, a quarter — but that the richest — while the Leavitts, 



* Provincial Papers, Vol. IX. The names of the fifty-four are given later, 
t First Church records. 



THE church's history. 75 

Robinsons and Emerys were staunch conservatives, only one each 
of the two first named families and none of the latter being enrolled 
among the dissentients. 

Mr. Whitefield came to America again in 1744, arriving late in 
the year at York. It was during this visit that his controversy with 
the colleges came to a head, and through their influence some 
ministers who had formerly supported him, turned the cold 
shoulder. He had also a long discussion with Dr. Chauncy, of 
Boston. In the course of this he frankly confessed the mistakes he 
had made on his first visit, but failed to conciliate the Harvard 
faculty. In 1768, however, after the burning of the college library, 
Whitefield collected and presented the college with many valuable 
books and for this they politely thanked him. Several conventions 
of ministers passed resolutions against him. Among the signers of 
one of them were Messrs. Gookin, of North Hampton, and Fogg, 
of Kensington, but their action was rather personal than official.* 
In March, 1745, he made his first appearance in Exeter, lie 
preached twice to his followers in spite of Mr. John Odlin's solemn 
warning to keep out of his parish. In May, 1747, the seceders, 
who had a meeting-house, and a quasi parish established by an 
exparte council, but not recognized by law, called Mr. John 
Phillips, whom they had elected ruling elder, but he declined the 
pastoral office. Originally intended for the ministry, he felt, after 
hearing Whitefield, that he never could become an acceptable 
preacher. 

In 1747, on the 28th of July, the Convention of Ministers in 
New Hampshire, which was superseded on the basis of the West- 
minster Catechism, in 1809, by the New Hampshire General As- 
sociation, was founded at Exeter. Sixteen ministers of Rocking- 
ham and Strafford counties were present, largely opponents of the 

*The influence of Yale college, whose President had taken strong action against the revival, 
doubtless inspired the Declaration of the Association of the County of New Haven, February 
19, 1744-45 It charges Whitefield with enthusiasm, false doctrines, uncharitableness and 
slander, as recreant to his Episcopal vows in working with Presbyterians and Congregationalists, 
and as generally a disturber of the church. It also quotes with unction these words of the Rev. 
Nathaniel Eells, of Massachusetts. "I verily believe that God in judgment and not in mercy to 
this people hath sent him again into this country." Whatever grounds there may be for doubt- 
ing Whitefield's good judgment in some particulars, the attack on him in the Declaration is so 
violent and sweeping as to deprive it of all weight. We have not cited some of its bitterest 
allegations. 



J6 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

evangelistic movement, though any declaration regarding the faith 
of the members on points of doctrines was avoided as inexpedient. 
The Rev. John Odlin was elected moderator ; the Rev. Henry 
Rust, of Stratham, clerk, and the Rev. Jonathan Cushing, of Dover, 
assistant clerk. The object of the meeting was said to be the 
promotion of harmony, peace, and good order among the churches, 
and to guard them against everything that might shock their 
foundation or corrupt their doctrine. After introductory proceed- 
ings, a committee was appointed to propose something to be laid 
before the ministers tending to promote the great ends of the 
meeting. The two Odlins headed the committee, which consisted 
of five members. Next day it reported that "Whereas there has been 
divers errors in doctrine of late, propagated by some ignorant and 
enthusiastical persons and preachers, encouraged contrary to the 
rules of peace and holiness, Resolved, that we will to the best 
of our ability, both in our public ministrations and private conversa- 
tion, maintain and promote the great and important doctrines of 
the gospel, and take particular notice of several doctrinal errors 
which have more remarkably discovered themselves of late." These 
errors are said to be: i. That saving faith is nothing but a 
persuasion that Christ died for one in particular. 2. That morality 
is not of the essence of Christianity. 3. That God sees no sin in 
his children. 4. That believers are justified from eternity. 5. 
That no unconverted person can understand the meaning of the 
Scripture. 6. That sanctification is no evidence of justification. 
The resolution further pledges the convention to be earnest in ex- 
posing and opposing these errors and investigating the opposite 
truths. They will discourage ignorant people who set themselves 
up as teachers ; approve no candidates for the ministry till they are 
recommended by an Association and have preached for some time. 
New members were then proposed ; some routine business was 
transacted, and the meeting adjourned to meet in Hampton in 
October. The organization proved a good one, and was especially 
useful in helping the foundation of Dartmouth college and in sup- 
plying destitute localities with ministers, but he who reads between 
the lines can see that the discouragement of evangelistic work was 
a main object with the founders. The organizers of the Association 



the church's history. 77 

in 1809 thought the old body decidedly defective from the religious 
standpoint, but the Associations of late years have given that pre- 
ponderance to denominational business, which was made a cause of 
complaint about ninety years ago.* 

Installation or Ordination. 

In 1748 the continued depreciation of the currency led to the 
salaries of the Messrs. Odlin being more than doubled, but the great 
event of the year was the settlement of the Rev. Daniel Rogers as 
pastor of the New church, which stood on the ground now occupied 
by Col. W. N. Dow's residence. 

On the 30th of August ministers and delegates came to Exeter 
for the purpose of installing Mr. Rogers as pastor of the New 
church. His supporters claimed that he had already been ordained 
at York, while his opponents, as we have already seen, denounced 
his ordination as a sham, since it only constituted him an evange- 
list, and not pastor of a particular church as required by the Cam- 
bridge platform. The churches invited were that at Berwick, now 
South Berwick, Maine ; the Second church at Kittery ; the First at 
Ipswich; Somersworth ; Second church in York; the Presbyterian 
church of Londonderry ; and the Second church, Portsmouth, and 
"The Separates," of Newbury, Chebacco, Mass., and Stratham. 
These delegates were generally as much champions of the revival 
and of the new church as were the members of the council of ten 
their opponents. Before acting, the Rev. Messrs. Jeremiah Wise, of 
Berwick, and James Pike, of .Somersworth, the latter a son-in-law 
of Judge Nicholas Oilman, and also a classmate of Mr. Rogers, 
waited on the Messrs. Odlin, and asked them whether they would 
leave the questions at issue to a joint council. To this they con- 
sented, and appointed a committee of their church. The seceders 
refused to join in the council, saying their installing council was 
already formed. Messrs. Wise and Pike then withdrew, but next 
day, August 31, Mr. Rogers was installed by his relatives, Messrs. 
John Rogers, of Kittery, Nathaniel Rogers, of Ipswich, and Jonathan 
Parsons, of Newbury. Upon the refusal being known, the Messrs. 

♦For Report of Convention Meetings, see Farmer and Moore, and N. H. Historical Society 
Transactions. 



78 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

Odlin sent a protest addressed " to any ministers or others, that 
are or may come to assist in the proposed ordination of Mr. Dan- 
iel Rogers within the limits of the First parish in Exeter." The 
protest asserts, first, that the seceders had no just cause for with- 
drawal, and their manner of going out was irregular ; secondly, they 
had no regular dismission, and violated a prior obligation ; thirdly, 
they had refused to join in a council ; fourthly, they were incon- 
sistent in admitting that they could hold occasional communion 
with the First church as an orthodox church of Christ — if so, why 
not stated communion?; fifthly, in settling a minister a regard 
ought to be had to the neighboring churches. For these reasons, 
the delegates were asked to desist from the ordination. Appended 
to the protest were the opinions in reply to questions by the Odlins 
asked of various neighboring ministers, who held that the views of 
the protest were all right, and that the seceders ought to retrace 
their steps and ask forgiveness of their former pastor and church, 
for accusing them of being opposers of the glorious work of God's 
grace. The signers were Revs. John Moody, of Newmarket ; 
Ward Cotton, of Hampton ; Jeremy Fogg, of Kensington ; Nathan- 
iel Cooking, of North Hampton : Elisha Odlin, of Amesbury, son 
of John Odlin, and Robert Cutler, of Epping. 

As we have shown, the protest did no good. A contemporary 
pamphlet account of the affair says : 

" No reply being made to the above remonstrances, the pastors of the church 
in Exeter, with a number of neighboring ministers, went to the Assembly and 
tho't proper there to bear testimony against their proceedings. Accordingly 
one of the pastors urged it upon the moderator either to read the church's 
remonstrance to the Assembly, or give him liberty to read it. To which the 
moderator reply'd that the way was clear to them, and that 'twas no proper 
time to dispute now. They would dispute it at a proper time and place. 
Upon which one or more of the neighboring ministers urged that the remon- 
strance which they had sent to the Council might be publicly read to make it 
evident to the Assembly that they bore solemn testimony against the unwar- 
rantable proceedings of the day. To which it was answered that it was not 
sent in seasonably (altho' it was sent to the Council about an hour before 
they went to meeting). Upon this the moderator, the Rev. Mr. John Rogers 
of Kittery, immediately proceeded to the charge, without giving any further 
opportunity to speak (tho' often requested). Upon which the pastors and 
neighboring ministers withdrew, thereby testifying their disapprobation of said 



the church's history. 79 

proceedings. Thus we have exhibited some things relating to the unaccounta- 
ble procedure of said ordination."* 

An entry on the records of the South Berwick church shows very 
clearly the perplexity in which good people, who favored the revival 
but dreaded irregularities, were placed. On receiving an invita- 
tion to send delegates to Mr. Rogers's ordination, the book says 
it was decided not to do so, but to send a letter giving the reasons 
for declining. This was doubtless the view of the pastor, Rev. 
Jeremiah Wise, who was as sagacious as his name would seem to 
imply. Before this could be done, papers were sent saying that 
the " Separates," the term is Mr. Wise's, had proposed a mutual 
council to the Messrs. Odlin, and that the offer had been accepted, 
but there was a disagreement as to the selection of churches, the 
fault being with the Odlins. Thereupon, the Berwick church re- 
considered its action and sent its pastor with two delegates, with 
instructions to act if the case was as represented ; otherwise, not to 
act. The delegation went to Exeter and he recorded it. "Upon 
conversing with the Messrs. Odlin and the committee of the stand- 
ing part of the church, finding that they were ready to join still 
with the Separatists in calling the joint council, which the Separa- 
tists' society were now unwilling to join with them in, we thought 
we were prevented joining in the ordination. So we withdrew 
from the Council and did not act." This fully explains the course 
of Mr. Wise as mentioned above. 

Mr. Rogers delivered his first sermon after his installation from 
Psalm 133, setting forth the blessedness of brethren in unity, but 
making no direct reference to the troubles through which he and 
his associates were passing.f 

It is hard for people of our own time to conceive the intense ex- 
citement which the persistent rebellion of a third of the supporters 
of the constituted ecclesiastical authority must have occasioned in 
Exeter, then a town of about 1600 inhabitants. Every non-evan- 
gelistic taxpayer was interested in preventing the legal recognition 
of the new church, for the Messrs. Odlin had a life hold on all 

* Remonstrances of the Church in Exeter, 1748. 

t Mr. Wise's action did not alienate Mr. Rogers, for he visited him at his home in Berwick, a 
few years later. 



SO THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

voters and property holders, and if a third of the debtors were 
released, the whole burden would fall on the remainder. As things 
stood, the separatists, while indulging in the luxury of a new 
minister and meeting-house at their own expense, must still pay 
tribute to the First church. A few refused to perform this double 
duty, and were sent to jail. There was no doubt a good deal of 
browbeating on the one side, and irritating profession of special 
righteousness on the other, but too many of the seceders were men 
of wealth as well as worth, to make persecution easy. A heavy 
blow had been struck at the standing order, and many of the safe- 
guards of the ancient polity had been trampled upon. It is un- 
deniable that the methods of the departing brethren could not be 
justified except by a higher law. Whether they were actually doing 
evil that good might come, is a question which will find various 
answers, but there was no doubt a mixture of good and evil on 
both sides. 

A New Parish. 

In 1752, and probably in other years closely following the 
council, the seceders' petition for release from the First church was 
again made, only to be rejected, but on the 20th of November, 
1754, their chief opponent, John Odlin, died of a fever after a 
fortnight's illness, at the age of 73. He was beloved by the majority 
of his townsmen until the last, for the day after his death it was 
voted to raise jQt-OO for his funeral expenses, and this in the less 
depreciated new tenor notes. He was a man of dignified bearing, 
strong mind and stronger will. His worst mistake, conscientiously 
committed no doubt, was his misunderstanding and persistent op- 
position to a great spiritual movement. Had he given it reasonable 
encouragement and not persisted in taking his son for a colleague, 
he might have checked its extravagances and yet reaped the benefit 
of its fervor. 

The senior Odlin's death was no doubt a help to the seceders, for 
in September, 1755, the legislature organized its adult adherents 
into the New Parish, and the town made rather a feeble opposition 
through Messrs. Zebulon Giddinge and John Rice. Thenceforward 
the seceders were freed from paying taxes to support the church 



the church s history. 8i 

they had left. Their charter ordered Samuel Gilman to call them 
together for parish organization on the 27th of October, 1755. 
The "inhabitants of the town of Exeter exclusive of all the parishes 
thereof" also met on the 27 th, on a special call to assess the polls 
and estates in the town of Exeter agreeable to an act made and 
passed September 18, 1755. Nicholas Ferryman, Exeter's earliest 
lawyer, presided, and James Leavit, Jonathan Oilman and Charles 
Rundlet were chosen assessors.* 

The Nicholas Oilman of the above catalogue was a grandson of 
Mrs. Odlin's supporter of the same name who died in 1749, and 
the widow Mary Gilman was the widow of the Rev. Nicholas, before 
mentioned as minister of Durham, who died in 174S, and was a 
son of the elder Nicholas. r 

The tax list of the First parish for 1755 is apparently lost, and 
the oldest now accessible is that of 1772, which probably does not 
vary much from that of seventeen years earlier, being drawn up 
during the pastorate of Woodbridge Odlin, and while the leaders of 
the secession were still alive. It contains the names of 299 tax- 
payers, of whom fifteen were women. The list of 1794, when Mr. 
Rowland was in the enjoyment of his first popularity, and after the 
return of prominent men who had been members of the New parish, 
has a total of 327 persons assessed. Of these twenty-seven are 
women or estates, leaving just 300 male taxpayers. In 1763 an 
act was passed at the request of the First parish, authorizing the 
choice of assessors, a right which seems to have been imperiled by 
the founders of the New parish. 

All was not yet plain sailing. Many, indeed most, of the churches 

* The list of persons authorized to form the New parish corresponds very nearly to that of the 
fifty four petitioners of 1745, in names as well as number. 1 quote it in preference to the earlier 
one as showing those who were seceders on mature conviction: Peter Gilman, Samuel Gilman, 
Thomas Dean, Theophilus Smith, Daniel Thing, John Lord, Robert Light, Josiah Gilman, 
Samuel Gilman, Junr., John Phillips, Daniel Gilman, Nicholas Gilman, Thomas Lord, Benja- 
min Thing, Abner Thurston, Josiah Ladd, Nathaniel Folsom, Sumersbee Gilman, John Dean, 
Richard Smith, Richard Smith, Junr., Samuel Smith, Josiah Barker, Abner Dolloff, Samuel 
Dolloff, John Robinson, Junr., Peter Robinson, John Harris, John Gilman, Junr., the widow 
Mary Gilman, John Lougee, Junr., Edward Colcord, Nicholas Smith, Jonathan Judkins, Robert 
Lord, Eliphalet Lord, Stephen Thing, Joseph Stacy, Jonathan Young, Benjamin Rogers, 
Stephen Palmer, John Leavit, Joseph Smith, Wadleigh Cram, Edmund Lougee, Dudley James, 
Trueworthy Gilman, Thomas Piper, Elias Ladd, Daniel Gilman the 3rd, Nehemiah Gilman, 
James Thurston, Junr., and William Harris. 

t Provincial Papers IX. First Parish records. 



82 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

thought the installation of Mr. Rogers — they called it ordination — 
highly irregular and possibly void. A council was held at Exeter, 
July 31, 1755. It was a mutual one between the two churches, 
and from the new church joining in it, it was apparent that it did 
not feel altogether sure of the denominational tenability of its 
position. The churches called were Ipswich, Third ; the two 
churches in Cambridge, and the Third in Gloucester, Mass. The 
finding was as follows (those desirous of reading it in full will 
find it on page 295, of the ninth volume of Provincial Papers) : 

1 st. Notwithstanding any grievance, the brethren of the new 
gathered church (so called) may have met, we judge their manner 
of withdrawing communion was disorderly. 2d. We judge the reflec- 
tions of the separating brethren upon the late pastor and the other 
brethren of the church (calling them opposers of the work of God's 
soverain grace, &c.) to be unbecoming, savoring of an uncharitable 
spirit, &c. 3d. If they have received members of other churches 
who are under admonition, their practice is utterly inconsistent 
with the order and peace of the churches and in order to recon- 
cilation they should deny such members further fellowship. Should 
they comply with the recommendations, the First church was 
urged to recognize the new organization as a church of Christ, and 
its pastor (so called,) as a minister of Christ, and receive the mem- 
bers to communion and other ordinances, as if they were brethren 
of other churches. This was to be done on condition that the new 
gathered church (so called,) shall manifest its acceptance of the 
judgment of the council and a readiness to practice agreeably 
thereto. If this were done, the First church was counselled to 
forgive the seceders whatever had been offensive in their late trans- 
action, notwithstanding the exceptionable steps taken toward being 
formed into a church state. On the 4th of August, the new church 
accepted the result, in the following action : 

At a meeting of the New Gather'd Church of Christ in Exeter — August 4th 
1 755. Voted that we consent and accept of the judgment and Advice of the 
Council mutually chosen by us and the first church of Christ in said town, — as 
is contained in their result dated August 1st 1755 — and sign'd by the Rev. 
Samuel Wigglesworth as moderator — and we hereby manifest our Readiness to 
practise agreeably thereto. Voted likewise, — that a copy of the above be sent 



the church's history. 83 

to the Revd Woodbridge Odlin to be communicated to the First Church of 
Christ in Exeter. 

Samuel Gilman 1 Ruling Elders in 
Daniel Thing > behalf of the 
John Phillips j Church. 

There is no record of any action by the First church, but there 
is reason for believing that its attitude was not very conciliatory. 
The spirit of controversy had not yet cooled down, and fraternity 
is a plant of slow growth * 

The election of October 25, 1755, at which representatives in 
the Assembly or Legislature were chosen, was strikingly in contrast 
with the ceremonious good order of earlier and subsequent meet- 
ings, which, until within the last sixty years, were always opened 
with prayer by a minister. Peter Gilman and John Phillips, both 
leaders of the secession, were declared elected. Great excitement 
ensued, and it was maintained that they had been chosen by fraud. 
According to Ephraim Robinson, a member of the old parish, the 
polls were closed before a number of people had an opportunity of 
voting, and the meeting was carried on with the greatest confusion 
and irregularity that he had ever seen. The Assembly ordered the 
returns to be set aside and a new election to be held. At this 
Peter Gilman was re-elected with Zebulon Giddinge, an old parish 
man, as his colleague. The irritating results of the recent emanci- 
pation of the new parish were no doubt the cause of most of the 
trouble. Henceforth for about a century — the phrase is now rarely 
US ed — the warrants for the annual meetings of the First parish were 
addressed to "all the legal voters of the town, exclusive of all the 
parishes (or sometimes 'any parish') that is, of all which had been 
set off beginning with Newmarket." 



♦One of the seceders, Samuel Gilman, Jr., a younger brother of Col. Peter Gilman, on Sep- 
tember 9, 1771, wrote a long and contrite letter to the Rev. Woodbridge Odlin asking re- 
admission, saying he had professed the Christian faith in the First church and, though he had 
gone off with the disaffected brethren, had ardently desired reunion and had never felt satisfied 
with the step he had taken. He therefore asked for readmission. Among other things, he said 
that he had been truly desirous that an accommodation might be brought about, and to that end 
labored with all his might for the joint council held in the year 1755, but was disappointed, "the 
result of that council not answering the end." The continued non-intercourse shows that Mr. 
Gilman was right in the conclusion I have quoted. Mr. Gilman, who must not be confounded 
with his elderly cousin, Samuel, one of Rogers's ruling elders, brought no dismissal from the New 
church, but as he says, I leave "not as a new member but a returning brother," in fact as a 
rebel who laid down his arms. 



84 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

November 18, 1755, an event occurred which scared for the 
time being both parishes into solemnity. I quote Mr. Rogers's 
diary : 

"In the morning abt half an hour after 4 of the clock we were awaked with 
a terrible earthquake, which was followed with ye space of an hour with 3 or 4 
rumbling noises. People here roused and llockt to our meeting house in the 
morning when prayer was made and a word of exhortation given, p. M. A 
great assembly at Mr. Odlin's meeting and a sermon. 19. The terrible Noise 
was heard 2 or 3 times. In the evening we had a large assembly at our 
meeting house and the sermon. 20. The noise was not heard. 22. This evening 
abt 8 o'clock we had another shock of the earthquake, wh. shook the house 
and was worse than any except that on Tuesday morning. 23 [Sunday] Ex- 
temporized and was greatly assisted. December 1, [Sunday] A young man 
cried out, under conviction which was the occasion of another young man's 
awakening. 20. Something shake of earthquake, but God spares us yet." 

We may remark in passing, that Mr. Rogers makes no record of 
the legalizing of the New parish, of the opposition to his installation, 
or of the election trouble. Of the council he merely says that it 
sat with closed doors, and that it decision was announced in Mr. 
Odlin's meeting-house, after a sermon by Mr. Appleton, and was 
read by John Phillips. He says nothing of its purport. 

The consequences of having two churches, where only one was 
needed, are thus described by an acute observer who lived in the 
days when everybody must be a member of some parish and pay 
legally imposed taxes for its support : 

" At this period all the disputes arose from the jealousies and anxieties to 
gain new recruits to their respective membership. On the 1st of April, when 
the last day for change in relation to the societies came, there was great watch- 
fulness and no small anxiety manifested to induce migratory characters to settle 
down on their respective preferences. I have no recollection of any effort 
more than that of the tongue brought to bear on individuals. The same effects 
from a needless multiplication of churches have continued to our own day, 
though state and town laws do not assert their authority.* 

The records of both parishes abound in notification of transfers 
of memberships, beginning soon after the New parish had a legal 
existence. The clerk of each parish was expected to make known 
to his brother official any change which the secessionist member 

♦Unpublished Ms. of Dr. William Perry. 



the church's history. 85 

had announced to him in writing. These notices vary in form and 
tone. They are sometimes brief and dignified; sometimes eccen- 
tric in grammar and orthography, and occasionally involve a rhetori- 
cal kick at the deserted organization. Their members are also sug- 
gestive of the comparative popularity of the two parishes at the 
time they are written. Thus, during Woodbridge Odlin's pastorate 
the coming and going currents about balanced each other. There 
was a noticeable increase of dismissals from the Old to the New 
parish during the latter halt of Mr. Mansfield's stay. This was fol- 
lowed by an influx from the New parish during the closing decade 
of the eighteenth century, with a reaction at the beginning of the 
present century, after Mr Rowland had lost his popularity, the 
dismissals being given to persons desirous of joining the Second 
parish, with its new church, or the Baptists or I niversalists. From 
1800 to 1828 Mr. Rowland lost many more hearers than he gained. 
Yet in the early months of 1 S 1 4 Deacons Isaac Williams and 
Thomas Odiorne and over a dozen other members of the " Old 
Upper " church and parish, who were not satisfied with the new 
church organization of December 24, 1813, announced themselves 
at their first opportunity members of the First parish. There were 
a few notices of comers and goers recorded during the first year of 
Mr. Smith's pastorate, but since then there have been only a few 
strategic memoranda inscribed during the stormy period of the 
administration of Mr. Williams. The practice is virtually obsolete. 
The following are a few specimen notices : 

Exeter, March 26, 1 791 . 
This is to signify my intentions to belong to that part of the town (or Parish) 
over which the Rev. Mr. Rowland is minister. 

Your humble serv't, 

John Taylor Gilman. 

Exeter, March 19, 1793. 
I hereby signify my desire to belong to the Town-Parish in Exeter. 

John Phillips. 

Exeter, March 30, 1797. 

I hereby signify intentions to belong to the religious society of which the 

Rev. Mr. Rowland is minister. 

Joshua Barstow. 



86 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

Exeter, April 30, 1810. 
To Dr. Joseph Tilton, clerk of the Town of Exeter. Sir: It is my intention 
to leave the Rev. Mr. Rowland's Parish, and join the New Parish in this town, 
and you will please to communicate this my intention to the proper officers in 
the different parishes. 

Charlotte Hamilton. 

Exeter, March 30, 181 1. 
Please to put me to the lower parish for minister's tax. 

Daniel S. Jones. 

The writer of the following petition was apparently somewhat 
mixed : 

Doctor Joseph Tilton, clerk of the town of Exeter, exclusive of any parish or 
otherwise lately called the First or New Parish in said Exeter : Sir, I wish to 
take my name from the Books of said Parish not being willing to belong there 
any longer. Please to act in this agreeable to your regulations that I may not 
be taxed again in said Parish. 

John J. Parker. 

Exeter, 28th of 1829. 

After church organization in October, 1800, lists of Baptists were 
furnished to the First parish church as members of the new organ- 
ization. On March 31, 1S10, a catalogue of twenty-nine, and on 
April 4, 181 1, thirty-seven persons "signified" their desire to 
become members of the "Universalian Society," claiming all the 
rights and privileges of a regular religious society "which has bylaw 
provided." This organization fell in pieces, to be reorganized 
about ten years later ; meanwhile quite a number of the thirty-seven 
returned to their original church.* 

Parish Annals. 

With the death of John Odlin his son Woodbridge became sole 
pastor of the First church. He had not the intellectual force 
of his father, and was cast in a gentler mould. Notwithstanding 
his opposition to the revivalists, he is said to have been a very 
spiritually minded man, and was a thorough gentleman in his man- 

* The latest trace of the existence of this First Universalist organization is the following note 
addressed to the Clerk of the First Parish, Dr. Joseph Tilton. "I am not satisfied with Mr. 
Rowland's preaching. I shall join the Universalists. I do wish to have my name recorded on 
there (.Sic) list. Exeter, March 20th, 1820." 



the church's history. 87 

ners. His pastorate was quiet and uneventful until' his death March 
10th, 1776, in his fifty-eighth year, and the seventieth since his 
father came to Exeter. His salary averaged 100 pounds, lawful 
money, being occasionally cut down ten pounds, and once or twice 
raised to 125. He was an earnest sympathizer with the national 
cause, but never seems to have reciprocated the efforts of Mr. 
Rogers to promote good feeling between the churches. With him 
the only sincere repentance would be the breaking up of the irreg- 
ular organization and returning to the old church. While they 
failed to bring forth such fruit, the conciliatory and apologetic ut- 
terances of the seceders counted for little. But Mr. Odlin's view 
of the case was that of most of his people and of the majority of 
New England ministers. The old alliance of church and state was 
slow to yield to voluntaryism. It was not until 1771 that the peo- 
ple of the First parish perceived that the institution of a new par- 
ish had changed their relation to the town. At the annual parish 
meeting, held on April 1st of that year, it wis voted that the asses- 
sors "purchase a book for the recording of the affairs of that part 
of the town, over which the Revd. Mr. Woodbridge Odlin is pastor, 
that then the present clerk transfer or copy out of the town book 
all that relates to said part of the town that h ! since that 

the New parish has been set off by act." Thus began that definite 
parish existence, which was to be further limited by the legalized 
entrance of other denominations into the field at the opening of 
the nineteenth century. 

The Half Way covenant was in use during Mr. Odlin's ministry, 
and the additions to the full membership of his church were only 
thirty-six in a pastorate of thirty-two years. The baptisms were 
1,276, mainly but not exclusively of children. He married Abigail, 
daughter of Colonel Peter Gilman, one of the chief opponents of 
his settlement. She was a widow, having married in 1749 the Rev. 
Job Strong, pastor of the South church at Portsmouth. He died 
in 1 75 1 of an attack of colic a few hours after he had preached a 
sermon on the text : " Though I walk through the valley of the 
shadow of death," etc. Jonathan Edwards preached Mr. Strong's 
ordination sermon, and stopped at Exeter on his way to Ports- 
mouth, calling on Mr. Rogers, as the latter mentions in his diary. 



88 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

Mr. Odlin left several sons and daughters, but no descendants bear- 
ing his family name are now living save the children and grand- 
children of his grandson the late Peter Odlin, of Dayton, Ohio, 
who was an eminent lawyer. The parish paid its pastor's funeral 
expenses and gave his widow twenty-five pounds.* 

In the following July, after holding a fast, in which the Associa- 
tion of Ministers, in session at Hampton, was asked to join, the 
parish called the Rev. Isaac Mansfield as pastor, and the church 
took a like action. Mr. Mansfield was ordained October 9, 1776, 
and was dismissed September 18, 1787, by a two-thirds vote, having 
lost confidence by "imprudence" — supposed to be intemperance. He 
soon after returned to his native place Marblehead, where he became 
a magistrate. He died in 1826, aged 76. He was a graduate of 
Harvard in the class of 1767. During his pastorate twelve persons 
were admitted to the church and 1245 baptized. The Half Way 
Covenant was obviously in full operation. At his ordination the 
Rev. Mr. Thayer, of Hampton, preached the sermon. 

In 1777 steps were taken at a parish meeting to stop the noise 
made by boys in the gallery, and thenceforward, until very recently, 
two or more tithing men were annually elected to discharge this 
duty, their usual pay being exemption from parish taxes. When 
Mr. Mansfield's dismissal followed the ordeal of a vote to which he 
had submitted the question of his going or staying, the council 
consisted of only three churches, Kensington, Portsmouth and 

* Mr. Rogers says under date of March ioth, 1776: "Helped Rev. Woodbridge Odlin, 
deceased. 14th, Snow and rain in the morning. Rev. Mr. Odlin's funeral was attended. Mr. 
Fogg (of Kensington) prayed with a great congregation in the meeting-house. 22d, Dined with 
the selectmen; p. M. visited Mrs. Odlin. 28th, A full congregation of Mr. Odlin's people. I 
was assisted." 

Mr. Odlin's marriage to Mrs. Strong, Peter Gilman's daughter, was performed by the 
Rev. Paine Wingate at Hampton Falls, October 23d, 1755, while her father was leading 
300 men to Crown Point. In the state of feeling between the churches the marriage was some- 
what remarkable. It was the result of a very early attachment. Mr. Odlin was fourteen years 
older than his wife, and when a young man in his early days used to take her, then a little girl, 
into his lap and playfully called her his wife. She married Mr. Strong, but lost him in two years. 
The old fondness revived, and she became a wife of the man against whose ordination her father 
protested and seceded. These facts came to me orally. After his expedition Colonel Gilman 
was made a brigadier, but his friends often used his old title. Almost the only one of his family 
to be such, Peter Gilman was a Loyalist during the Revolution. He was seventy years old at its 
outbreak, and to the conservatism of age, added a conscientious belief that he was bound by the 
many oaths he had taken when accepting commissions in the royal service. His Toryism was 
of a quiet character, and the only notice taken of it was ordering him not to leave Exeter with- 
out peimission of the Committee of Safety, 



the church's history. 89 

Greenland. Its findings avoided the main issue by merely saying, 
"We are constrained by duty and love to testify the sense we have 
of the valuable ministerial gifts with which God hath furnished Mr. 
Mansfield, and which have been well approved, not only among his 
own people, but by the churches in this vicinity." 

The most important event of Mr. Mansfield's ministry was the 
gift to the parish in 1778, by Mr. John Rice, of his house on 
Centre street, where the present parsonage, built in 1790, now 
stands, and certain lands on the Little River, now mainly occupied 
by the residences of Messrs. Fuller and Francis, and by houses 
erected by Mr. Follansby. The bequest was to take effect on the 
death of his wife. She died in 1785, and added to the property a 
wharf and some houselots. Mr. Rice's will conditioned his devise 
on the continuance of the parish, and its constant support of a 
regular learned minister. In case of a lapse, the property was to 
be appropriated for the benefit of a grammar school in Fxeter, 
forever.* 

Daniel Rogers and the New Parish. 

We must now glance at the fortunes of the New parish, and can 
do so most intelligently by tracing some of the movements of its 
pastor. There was no official intercourse between the New parish 
and the First, though after the first irritation subsided, there was a 
pretty kindly feeling between the members of the organizations — 
between some at least — and Mr. Rogers seems to have done his 
best to conciliate the Messrs. Odlin. He came to Fxeter early in 
1748, and preached several months before giving the brethren a 
final answer. A few days after his arrival we find the entry : "Jan- 
uary 8, visited Dr. Dudley Odlin, sick." He uses the same word, 
" visited," in relation to both the Messrs. Odlin, father and brother 
of the sick man, whose burial is thus mentioned under February 

* In 1780, by a vote of the church, Mr. Rice's widow surrendered the custody of the com- 
munion ware to Deacon Brooks. It consisted of four pewter flagons, four pewter dishes and ten 
silver cups of different dimensions, one table cloth, and two napkins. The ladies, who have 
been in search of two long spoons for removing foreign substances from the wine, said to have been 
given by a Miss Hall early in the eighteenth century, will see by this note th^t nothing appears 
to have been known of any spoons in 1780. They must have disappeared before or have been 
apart from the communion ware. About fifty years ago the church voted to use unfermented 
wine if it could be obtained, but this idea was not carried out until the present decade. 



90 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

18: " Doct. Dudley Odlin's funeral was attended." He visited 
John Odlin in company with his father-in-law, Rev. Dr. Foxcroft, 
of Boston, whose daughter Anna he had married November 3, 1748. 
He had heard Woodbridge Odlin preach the day before he visited 
his brother, and he quite frequently attended the lectures at the 
First church, where sometimes the father, sometimes the son, and 
occasionally some neighboring minister officiated. He also men- 
tions occasional fasts at the First church as well as his own. He 
never gives the texts nor any criticisms. Once he mentions mak- 
ing a religious call on Mrs. Fogg, wife of a First church deacon. 
He "visited" John Odlin once during his last illness, and Wood- 
bridge Odlin, when also attacked by fever some years later. How 
many of these visits resulted in an interview we are not told. He 
never mentions receiving any visits from the Odlins, and it is evi- 
dent that his relations, at least his official ones, with surrounding 
churches were not very pleasant. He frequently exchanged with 
Mr. Adams, the Whitefieldian minister of Stratham, but rarely, if 
ever, with any others but Massachusetts friends. He seems always 
to be in good temper, and remarks with obvious pleasure that he 
had a large audience on Sundays when the First church had no 
service. His pay was largely in wood, provisions and groceries of 
all kinds, but he received some cash. His chief friends and coun- 
sellors were Colonel Peter, Major, later Colonel Daniel, Ruling Elder 
Samuel, Josiah Oilman and John Phillips. In his later years he often 
visited Deacon Isaac Williams and Dr. Oilman. He almost invar- 
iably calls the first two by their first names alone. When Colonel 
Peter marched with 300 men to Crown Point in 1755, Mr. Rogers 
went a little ways with him. On his return he had to dine with 
him, and next day with Major Daniel, just as he says John Went- 
worth did in 1767. He mentions the death of the first Mrs. Phillips 
in 1765, and announces the widower's second marriage in the sim- 
ple words, " Mr. Phillips returns a bridegroom." 

Mr. Rogers began attending the state conventions, heretofore 
described, about 1764, at Greenland, and in 1766 preached before 
it at Portsmouth. This seems to have been about his earliest full 
recognition by the ministry. He was a good pastor, an indefatigable 
visitor of the sick and suffering, but he visited his friends at Ips- 



THE CHURCH'S HISTORY. 91 

wich, Kittery and Boston more frequently and for longer periods 
than most modern congregations would endure. He was very fer- 
vent and is constantly being "helped," "lifted" and "assisted," but 
appears to have been a good and kind hearted, if not brilliantly 
intellectual man. In 1754 he enjoyed a second visit from White- 
field, after working with him in Newburyport and other places. 
The diary says under date of August 25, 1754 : 

" Mr. Whitefield preached in the morning at Mr. Haven's, Portsmouth, at 
noon at Greenland, towards night at St rat ham. Came to my house and lodged. 
26, He preached in our meeting-house. P. M., lie preached in the street 
before it. p. m. he went to Newbury." 

Whitefield had been preaching twice or thrice daily for several 
days before Mr. Rogers captured him. In 1764 he was in Ports- 
mouth again, and Mr. Rogers expected a visit. He stopped short 
at Greenland, however. His next and last appearance in Exeter 
was September 29, 1770. He preached his final sermon standing 
on a board placed over two barrels just in front of the house 
next above the present memorial stone. Some accounts say his 
discourse was one of his most eloquent, but an intelligent local at- 
tendant on the service was disappointed, the speaker being very 
feeble. Probably both accounts are true, the eloquent pas 
being followed by exhaustion of voice and lungs. Whitefield died 
next morning in Newburyport of asthma. He ate his dinner at 
Daniel Oilman's, the present Tilton house in the triangle between 
Front and Linden streets. No doubt Mr. Rogers dined with him. 
He next saw him a corpse, and officiated as one of his bearers at 
Newburyport.* 

Exeter's population increased little, if any, during the Revolu- 
tion and the years immediately following, and the growth of both 

* Stevens's "Methodism" tells a story of Whitefield's last hours which is so beautiful that one 
would like to believe it, but the omission of 3ny such occurrence by all his earlier biographers, in- 
cluding his traveling companion, inspires a doubt. Instead of going directly to bed on the night 
of his death as he intended, and as other authorities say he did, he took pity on the crowd of 
bystanders who filled the entry and the sidewalk, and candle in hand pleaded with them to be 
faithful Christians until the candle sank into its socket and went out. The daughter of the Rev. 
Mr. Parsons, with whom the evangelist staid, is made responsible for this fact by Dr. Stevens. 
If true how could silence have been kept at the funeral, as the facts have been omitted from 
numberless eulogies? Whitefield's bones are still preserved in the church of which Mr. Parsons 
was minister. 



92 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

churches was small. Some of Mr. Rogers's best supporters died 
during his life ; others did not long survive, and, as no one took 
their places, the parish became weak, and the tide began to turn 
toward the First church. The death of Daniel Oilman just men- 
tioned was quite remarkable. He had always prayed for a sudden 
death, and had kept his affairs in such a condition as to be ready 
for the call whenever it came. His wish was gratified, for he fell 
dead with apoplexy in 1780 in the old Upper church.* By a singu- 
lar coincidence a relative soon after died suddenly, also in church, 
though it is not said that his case was an answer to prayer. These 
two deaths so alarmed John Taylor Gilman, a grandson of Daniel, 
that apparently thinking that church deaths might be catching in 
the family, he did not enter a house of worship for many years. 
This he told a relative of mine. 

Mr. Rogers suffered much from broken health during his later 
years. He lost his wife in 1770, and on the tenth anniversary of 
her death said in his diary, "I mourn a widower to this day." In 
1782 he lost his "dear twin sister Coggswell." On May 5th of that 
year he was for the first time "at public worship after five months," 
adding "on account of a nervous disorder." His journal for 1785 
is very meagre and sad in tone. On January 3rd he wrote, "De- 
parted this life the Hon. Col. Samuel Gilman in the 87 th year of his 
age." 7th, "I preached a funeral sermon on Hebrews 6 :i2, on the 
death of Dear Col. Samuel Gilman." 5 th, "Old Deacon Fogg of the 
First church visited me." The subsequent entries are few and far 
between. He died December 9, 1785, having survived all his 

* Mr. Rogers in his diary, under date of Oct. 15th. 1780, give the following account of Colonel 
Gilman's death: 15, I preached A. M. and p. M. Just as I had read the beginning of the 89th 
Psalm to be sung, Col. Daniel Gilman, attempted to rise to sing, dropped down and died in a 
moment without a groan, sob or sigh, I believe to sing in heaven. 17th, I attended Col. Daniel 
Gilman's funeral, was assisted in prayer. Lord make to know mine end, etc. 

I may quote in this place as well as any other, Mr. Rogers's repudiation of the Half Way 
covenant. The fact is interesting, though it hardly belongs to the history of the First church. 
"April 30th, (1780). Sunday, was graciously assisted. Memo. Stayed the church and informed 
them that I could not proceed in the way of baptizing children of parents neither of them visible 
Christians." This action may have had something to do with the following vote July 8, 1781, of the 
First church, though the Half Way covenant prevailed till the end of Mr. Mansfield's ministry 
in 1787 and later; "Voted that for the future adult candidates for baptism stand propounded for a 
time. Memorandum. It was agreeable to the church that in general such should stand pro- 
pounded one Sabbath, viz. : be baptized the next Sabbath but one after propounding;" yet it was 
agreed that this should be referred to the discretion of the pastor. 



the church's history. 93 

particular friends save Colonel Peter, who died in 1788, aged 83, 
and John Phillips and Isaac \V. Williams, who were younger men, 
Deacon Williams especially. 

After Mr. Rogers's death the two parishes felt that in union there 
was strength. Antipathies had cooled, and in 1786, within a year 
of the venerable pastor's decease, resolutions were passed by both 
societies, expressing a desire for reunion, and after the First church 
dismissed Mr. Mansfield in 1787, both united in hiring one supply 
for the pulpit. A special arrangement was made with the select- 
men for apportioning the taxes. On March 29, 1788, both churches 
communed together at the invitation of Deacon Brooks of the 
First church, for the first time since the exodus of 1743. F'or 
months afterward there was united worship, and both societies 
joined in a call to the Rev. David Tappan, of Newburyport, Mass., 
but as there was not absolute unanimity he declined. A great 
opportunity was thus lost. The New church was asked to join the 
First in a call to the Rev. William 1". Rowland, but declined, 
and made a vain effort to secure for itself the Rev. Samuel Austin, 
of New Haven, Conn. In 1792 it settled the Rev. Joseph Brown, 
an Englishman of Lady Huntingdon's denomination of Calvinistic 
Methodists. He was thoroughly orthodox, but had some English 
habits which his people did not like. Realizing this, he voluntarily 
closed his pastorate in 1 797. He was the last settled minister of the 
New church, which still continued to hold services, but with wan- 
ing congregations. In the early nineties, in spite of Mr. brown's 
presence, and the non acceptance of Mr. Rowland by the New 
church, reunion appeared not very far off, and the movement was 
finally checked, not so much through Mr. Brown as through the 
unfortunate choice of a pastor by the First church. 

A New Pastor and Meeting-House. 

The anxiety for reunion impelled the First parish to secure a 
pastor of confessed ability, and he was thought to be found in the 
Rev. William Frederick Rowland, born at Plainfield, Conn., May 
26, 1 761, and a Dartmouth graduate in 1784. His salary was to 
be four hundred Spanish milled dollars, and this was supplemented 
in many years by gifts varying from fifty to one hundred and fifty 



94 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

dollars voted by the parish. He was ordained June 2, 1790. It 
had been voted in that year to build a new parsonage, and the 
present structure was erected on the site of the old one. The 
latter was exchanged for bricks, furnished by Mr. Theodore Moses, 
and removed by him to serve as his dwelling house on what is now 
Park street. The new house was three years in building. In 1793, 
one hundred pounds were voted for the repair of the meeting- 
house ; and again in 1795 it was announced that any large repairs 
would cost too much. In April, 1796, the sum of four hundred 
pounds was appropriated for building purposes, and Deacon 
Brooks, Benjamin Lamson, Dr. Samuel Tenney, John Rundlet and 
Nathaniel Parker were appointed a committee to prevent the boys 
from playing around the meeting-house. Finally, January 22, 
1798, at a special meeting, it was decided with only two dissenting 
votes, to build a new meeting-house. A large committee was 
appointed to value the pews, and J. T. Oilman, Oliver Peabody, 
Nathaniel Oilman and Ebenezer Clifford were designated a 
committee to report a plan or plans. On February 6 a plan 
was brought forward and accepted. Messrs. Nathaniel Gil man, 
Eliphalet Oiddings, Ephraim Robinson, Samuel Tenney, Oideon 
and Benjamin Lamson and Ebenezer Clifford were appointed to 
buy lumber, build a new house, dispose of pew rights, take down 
the old building, and to appoint some person or persons to take 
charge of the business. 

The next mention of the house is in the report of a meeting held 
January 19, 1799, when arrangements were made for the disposal 
of pews thus far unsold, and for the purchase of an eight hundred 
pound bell. On February 4th, the assessors were empowered to 
hire $3,000 for building expenses. At the regular annual meeting 
of the parish, April 1, 1799, it was ordered that such of the pews 
in the gallery as shall not be sold or rented, next week, be fastened 
up by the assessors. It has generally been thought that the new 
house, which has been much admired, had for its architect Mr. 
Clifford, but he co-operated with a Mr. Johnson, who may have 
furnished the specifications. This statement, Mr. Alfred Conner 
had from his father, who worked on the structure, but Captain 
Clifford, noted for his experiments with a diving bell, certainly had 



THE church's history. 95 

some supervisory authority. In 1800, either Mr. Johnson or Mr. 
Clifford built for Dr. Tenney the house that used to stand just 
below the church, and is now moved across the river and occupied 
by Mr. D. \Y. baker. Mr. James Folsom, grandfather of our Mrs. 
Hall and Mrs. Head, was master builder of the church. The 
parish paid him more than his contract. 

The bell, which superseded one bought in 1763, after much dis- 
cussion, bore the inscription "Paul Revere, 1S00." When broken 
up some twenty years ago, its fragments were bought by the baptist 
church and melted up with their own bell, also a Revere one. 
Just in time for this record, Mr. Henry ('. Moses has presented 
our people with a fragment of the old bell on which the date ap- 
pears. He has fastened to it a silver plate, vouching for the 
genuineness of the fragment. The gift is an illustration of the 
donor's thoughtfulness and good will. 

The church building was purposely made large, for, though 
erected by one parish, it was expected that it would soon hold all 
the worshippers of the town, and there seemed grounds for this 
hope. The parish records show a great number of prominent 
accessions. Among others, Attorney ( leneral George Sullivan joined 
the parish, and John Phillips and wife both the parish and the 
church. Though one of the must prominent seceders of 1743, Dr. 
Phillips had become an earnest advocate of reunion, and so re- 
mained until his death in 1795, in our membership. 

The parish had reason to be proud of its house, but gradually 
lost hope of its pastor, — why, I prefer to give in the words of one 
who was contemporary with him during much of his life — the late 
Dr. William Perry, though I am inclined to believe that a difference 
of religious tenets, though perhaps unperceived on either side, must 
be added as a source of trouble to Mr. Rowland's admitted intel- 
lectual deficiencies. 

I quote the record as I find it : 

"Before the new meeting-house was finished, Mr. Rowland, by neglect of 
personal effort in the study, not only had lost his first popularity, hut that 
reputation for supposed intellectual ability which hail been the foundation of 
it. I believe I might say all of the more intellectual part of his society had 
become dissatisfied, and wanted a separation, but he appealed to the pride of 



96 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

the other. The first class wrote him a letter, stating their feelings, but he 
took no farther notice than to reprimand them as not willing to hear the truth. 
This reflection was so constantly repeated that, as might be expected, a seces- 
sion eventually took place, and all the malcontents left. Thus a kind of peace 
was restored. Those who remained considered themselves a body fighting for 
the true gospel, and the effect of all this was to modify the style of Mr. Row- 
land's preaching so as to conform to that which was styled Hopkinsianism. 
The rank and file of the society made no objection to this changed style of 
preaching that I ever heard of, and he took advantage of the quiet disaffection 
which followed this changed relation of affairs to indulge his natural tempera- 
ment, which was natural mental inactivity. The preaching after the secession 
and the stimulus which higher intellectual auditors had or might have inspired, 
was reduced to mere talk and doctrinal assertion, which was submitted to for 
several years. After a while, those who sustained Mr. Rowland in his former 
trouble grew weary under his present performance. Many left the society, 
and the minister said if they were dissatisfied they had better leave. The con- 
sequence of all this was that the society had become so reduced and dissatis- 
fied that the people felt impelled to force a separation." 

A Second Secession. 

If the above judgments appear rather severe, there is other con- 
temporary evidence of Mr. Rowland's disregard of the signs of the 
times. Many, but not all his leading men had seceded, when at a 
parish meeting, called by a number of influential members, March 
18, 1805, resolutions were offered by United States Senator Nicho- 
las Gilman, affirming the existence of discontent, as evidenced by 
the withdrawals that had already taken place. Serious apprehen- 
sions were entertained of the departure of many others, and it was 
evident that Mr. Rowland's usefulness was at an end and an obsta- 
cle to the "desire to have the two parishes of the town united under 
the ministry of one person." Accordingly, a committee ought to 
be appointed to wait on Mr. Rowland and ask him to resign. 
Instead of adopting this recommendation the meeting simply 
ordered that it be recorded. Mr. Rowland staid, and Mr. Gilman 
soon followed his friends into the New parish. He was an earnest 
advocate of reunion, and offered to give $1,000 to the church when 
it should be effected. 

Mr. Rowland had always felt that he was settled for life, and his 
residence in Exeter for thirty-eight years made it difficult and un- 
pleasant to deal with his case. Finally, however, he called for a 



the church's history. 97 

colleague. This was refused him, and he requested, and was 
granted, a dismission December 5, 1828.* He was twice married, 
first, to Sally, daughter of Colonel Kliphalet Ladd, of Portsmouth, 
and second to Anne, daughter of Colonel Kliphalet Giddings, of 
Exeter. After leaving the parsonage, he occupied Colonel Gid- 
dings's house, now owned by Dr. Gerrish. He died in it, June 10, 
1843. He left a son and three daughters, all of whom died un- 
married. 

The New Second Church. 

We must now return to an earlier event in Mr. Rowland's minis- 
try to which our authority refers, but does not describe. At the 
opening of the present century, all, or about all the leading 
people in town were members of the First church or parish. The 
New church was at its last gasp, and only a few persons, generally 
aged, represented the parish. Mr. Rowland offended in various 
ways his principal hearers. Some, like Dr. Benjamin Abbot, 
principal of the Academy, who during Dr. Phillips's life was so 
decided a Trinitarian as to convert a young ladyf from Unitarian 
views. Judge Jeremiah Smith and Judge Samuel Tenney were in- 
clining to the new departure of the day, which finally blossomed 
into a Unitarian denomination. Others, like the Gilmans, had also 
private grounds for dissatisfaction, and in short the want of tact 
already mentioned had provoked a feeling which every act of Mr. 
Rowland, though well intended, was sure to increase. The 
secession began in 1803, when Governor John Taylor Gilman, 
Joseph Smith Gilman, Judges Jeremiah Smith and Oliver Peabody, 
Attorney General George Sullivan, Gideon Lamson and others 
declared themselves members of the New parish. They were 
followed later by Dr. Benjamin Abbot, Josiah Coffin Smith and 
others, and a process began by which Mr. Rowland's flock was 
gradually depleted. Some of these men later changed their parish 
relations once more ; among them Mr. Sullivan, who made a 

* Mr. Rowland was not invited to the council which installed Mr. Hurd, but Mr. Hurd was 
moderator of the one which dismissed Mr. Rowland. 

tMiss Mary Emery, eldest sister of Mrs. G. L. Soule. The statement is from her own lips. 
She said Dr. Abbot's change of views was not until after the death of Dr. Phillips. 



98 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

religious profession late in life and died a member of the First 
church. To quote Dr. Perry once more : 

"After the departure of Mr. Brown, a successor was not obtained; I do 
not know that the society felt able to meet the expenses of a new settlement. 
So the pulpit was occupied by different individuals as they could be obtained. 
This continued till the new organization started farther on. It must be remem- 
bered that the full orthodox doctrines, as preached by Whitefield, were retained 
by the [2d] church, and were the only acceptable ones permitted to be heard in 
that meeting-house. It must be remembered and kept in mind that these 
individuals who [later] seceded from the First society, though not professing 
to leave on account of Mr. Rowland's religious belief, still held views very 
different from him. I suppose that they were Unitarians, though not adopting 
that name. After they had joined this new society and paid for the support of 
its preaching, they thought they ought to have the privilege of selecting such 
preachers as suited them. The reply to this request from the deacon was 'oil 
and water will not mix.' After some time the new comers became the 
majority. When they were the most numerous, and their religious views were 
predominant, all of the old members of the church left, some for the First 
church [Sixteen, including two deacons, joined the First church in a body], 
some for the Baptist, and, I think, some few did not unite with any society. 
The church thus became apparently and virtually extinct. The society continued 
as before to meet, sometimes in the meeting-house, and at other times in the 
Academy hall; sometimes having preaching, at others reading, and at others 
no services. Such Sabbath service continued till Mr. Hosea Hildreth became 
instructor in the Academy. He was a licentiate, and endeavored to supply 
the society as far as he could consistently with his duties in the Academy. He 
sometimes preached, and others he supplied by exchange. The society thus 
waded along without any organized church for some years, when Mr. Hildreth 
urged the society to have an organized church formed. This was done by 
a council of the neighboring ministers. Thus the present Second church came 
into existence, not one of the old members uniting with it."* 

This view of the origin of the present Phillips church as a 
secession from our own, and not a continuation of the Rogers 
church, is shown to be correct by the proceedings at this organiza- 
tion. The call of the "Associated Brethren," as the seceders from 
Mr. Rowland's ministry had come to denominate themselves, 
plainly asks the neighboring ministers to convene for the purpose 
of "organizing them into a church." When the ministers assembled 

* There is something like a coincidence between the existence of the original Second church 
and the ministry of the two Odlins. Each lasted sixty-nine years and a few months. It may 
also be mentioned that there is not now living in Exeter any person bearing the name of Odlin. 



the church's history. 99 

a paper was read, signed by Dr. Abbot and Mr. Hildreth, which 
said : 

"The Lord's supper has not been administered in this parish for several 
years, and hut very seldom for a much longer period, although applications to 
have it administered were repeatedly and urgently made. In the mean time, 
nearly all the members of the church have attended public worship and 
communed elsewhere. And since the discontinuance of the ordinances, we do 
not find that any regular church meeting has been held or any act proposed by 
the church indicating its existence. About sixteen months ago, we, the under- 
signed, called upon the elder of the church and made a formal request that we 
might be permitted to transfer our connection with the churches to which we 
belong, to the church in this parish. His reply to us was, that nothing could 
be done about it. We have, moreover, repeatedly conversed with the elder 
and other members of the church, upon the unfortunate state of religion in the 
parish, and expressed our earnest desire that some measures might be taken for 
the revival of the ordinances, and our perfect willingness to assist in bringing 
about so happy an event. Several of the Associated brethren and Sisters 
have for a long time been wishing, and felt it their duty to make a public 
profession of religion and to attend and enjoy the communion. Under these 
circumstances we deemed it criminal to remain any longer inactive." 

The council, which was composed of men holding both conser- 
vative and advanced views — there was yet no Unitarian denomina- 
tion — decided that the applicants should be "instituted as a church," 
and forthwith proceeded to its organization December 24, 18 13. The 
candidates for membership were all seceders from the First church 
or parish, not a single person representing the old organization, 
which indeed had declined to receive some of them. Thus the 
present Phillips church has only a parish connection with the 
church of the seceders of 1743, and started with a creed to which 
the latter would have objected as deplorably weak.* The First 
church mourned the loss of several prominent supporters and their 
families, and may still regret it. Yet it is questionable whether the 

♦Second Church records, 1 813. To these may be added the distinct statement (Hist. Gen. 
Register, Vol. 1) by the late Rev. Dr. French of North Hampton, who was a member of the 
organizing council ofi8i3. In a correction of an erroneous date regarding the church of 1744, 
he says: "This is not the church of which the Rev. Mr. Hurd is pastor." While 1813 is un- 
questionably the year in which the present Phillips church was born, the absence of all men- 
tion of the pre-existing organization leaves the reader of the Year Book in doubt of the time 
when the New parish came into being. This point I have considered in my preface. For 
another view of the case see Rev. G. E. Street's Commemorative Discourse, Dec. 23d, 1888. 



IOO THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

seceders, had they remained through these years of doctrinal up- 
heaval which closely followed their departure, might not have 
brought theological dissensions into our ranks. If an adherence 
to the doctrines of the Reformation and the Pilgrim Fathers was 
desirable, as the majority of members thought, our church was 
safer without, than with able representatives of aggressively opposing 
views. This may appear to some a sour grape view of the exodus, 
but I have thought the idea worth presenting by way of suggestion. 

We have nothing farther to say of our neighbor and youngest 
daughter, save that by the somewhat rapid change of views from 
Unitarianism to Orthodoxy of her first pastor, the excellent Isaac 
Hurd, the church was saved to conservative Congregationalism, 
though many of its earlier male members retained Unitarian views 
through life. This fact occasionally made Dr. Hurd anxious, and 
once during his pastorate he called on his neighbor, the Rev. Ros- 
well I ). Hitchcock of the First church, and said that he was appre- 
hensive that a Unitarian colleague might be chosen for him. If 
this were done he should transfer his membership to the First 
church. His fears proved groundless, for the thoroughly Orthodox 
Rev. Asa Mann was selected for the place. The succession of pas- 
tors since Dr. Hurd's time has been strictly Congregational, and a 
warm hearted and energetic female membership has much more 
than overbalanced any remains of liberalism which may have sur- 
vived the exodus of 1854 to form a distinctively Unitarian church. 
Since Mr. Rowland's resignation, the official relations of the First 
and Second churches have been unembarrassed and courteous on 
both sides. 

Our church's youngest daughter has now reached the mature age 
of eighty-four years and eleven months, having long survived her 
elder sister. Her mother's house has abundant room for her, and 
not many years ago signified the fact. She has preferred, however, 
to build herself a new and separate habitation, and we all trust that 
she may prosper in it. If at any future time she should change 
her purposes, she will find the latch string still out, and that all the 
unpleasant events of 1743 and 1805 have been forgotten, the 
memory of kinship alone remaining in the maternal heart. 



THE church's history. ioi 

I )EN( >M1XATI< INAL MULTTPLICATIi >X. 

When Mr. Rowland came to Exeter in 1790, he had the field 
almost to himself. The situation had not much changed in 1S00, 
unless in the increasing weakness of the New parish. Not until 
some years later was he to look for rivalry in this quarter, and much 
of his trouble was self made. There were a few non-aggressive 
Quakers in town, and a stray Roman Catholic or Episcopalian, but 
neither of these last two was to organize a place of worship until 
the new century was half gone. If Methodist zeal had penetrated 
Exeter, it was working quietly and did not organize until Mr. 
Rowland's pastoral days were over. The same is true of the 
Christians, d'he Baptists, now so strong, organized in a dwelling 
house on the Plains, in October, 1S00. but for some years their 
notices of withdrawal from the First parish were few. By 18 10, 
they were frequent and numerous enough to alarm a zealous 
minister, who thought his own domains were being poached on. 
The Universalists, as has heretofore been shown, organized in 181 1, 
but they were not in full strength until about 182S. They were 
numerous and aggressive in the thirties and forties, but in 1854 
were glad to unite with some Unitarian seceders from the Second 
church. The First parish has not only been reduced in territory, 
but has supplied members to half a dozen churches within its own 
home field. Baptists, Methodists, Unitarians, Christians, Episco- 
palians and even Roman Catholics have forsaken her communion, 
and still she flourishes under a division of authority, less arbitrarily 
but still as really, as when she was monarch of all she surveyed. 

During Mr. Rowland's pastorate, the Half Way Covenant happily 
went into abeyance. He received one hundred and twenty-eight 
members during his thirty-eight years' pastorate, and baptized two 
hundred and ninety-five infants and adults. His two most suc- 
cessful years were apparently 1S17 and 1827. Fifteen persons 
were received in the former year, and ten in the latter, to church 
membership. A very abstract creed, to be found in the church 
books, was probably written by him. That of 1829, to be found in 
our church manual, is, substantially at least, the form known as 
the Piscataqua Association's. It remains unrepealed, though candi- 



102 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

dates are now asked to subscribe only to the shorter and simpler 
form. For nearly thirty years of his ministry, attendance and pay- 
ment were still compulsory. For many years after the law had 
been repealed, churches continued to tax attendants on the old 
system, and now when only voluntary offerings are received we 
still continue to call our officials assessors. 

A Spiritual Pastorate. 

The church was not long in finding a successor to Mr. Rowland. 
The Rev. John Smith, who had filled a pastorate in New Jersey, 
had been preaching in Portsmouth on a temporary engagement to 
much acceptance, and he won special favor with those members of 
our own church who heard him. He was a native of Weathers- 
field, Connecticut, and a classmate at New Haven of the Rev. Dr. 
Bouton, of Concord. He was thirty-three years of age when he 
came to Exeter. He was installed March 12, 1829, and great 
preparations were made for the eventful day. There was to be no 
ordination ball given by non church members, as when Mr. Row- 
land was ordained, for this form of commemoration, though not 
uncommon in the latter part of the eighteenth century, had gone 
out of favor in the more serious epoch of Mr. Smith's entrance 
upon office. The conflict between Orthodox and Unitarians was 
then at its height, and the conservatives took a much stronger posi- 
tion against what they deemed "vain amusements" than is held by 
the great mass of their successors. Still, the occasion was to be 
duly magnified. There were to be a procession, of which Major 
George Gardner, father of Mr. John E. Gardner, was announced as 
Chief Marshal, and a musical programme of unprecedented grandeur. 
The latter feature was a marked success. Such an array of bass 
viols, violoncellos, violins, flutes, clarinets and trombones was sel- 
dom gathered together, and a listener declared that the volume of 
melody was so great that he expected to see the roof of the church 
rise and sail off on a current of sweet sounds. The day of the 
organ was not yet. But alas for the procession ! A heavy fall of 
snow took place a day or two before the 12 th, and a driving rain 
followed. The streets were veritable water courses, and those who 
attended the services mostly went in sleighs. Even these did not 



THE CHURCHS HISTORY. 103 

escape wet feet, for the water covered the bottom of many of the 
sleighs. At the installation services Mr. Hurd gave the right hand 
of fellowship ; the Rev. Nathaniel Bouton preached the sermon, 
afterward published, and the Rev. Mr. Miltimore, of Newbury, offered 
the prayer of ordination. 

The latter twenties and earlier thirties were years of special 
religious interest in all parts of the country. There had been a 
reaction from the cold scepticism which followed the French revo- 
lution, and the existing controversy with Initarianism led to in- 
creased emphasis on the doctrines, and specially on the influences 
which separated man from God. This fact as well as Mr. Smith's 
fervor must be taken into consideration for a full understanding of 
his success, which was unprecedented in this vicinity as far as win- 
ning converts from the world was concerned. He had no doubts, 
cpiestions of criticism never troubled him. He accepted the Bible 
as the word of God and its teachings in their literal sense. He 
spoke from the heart, setting forth what he deemed to be truth, 
and clothed his thoughts in language which was intelligible to the 
least instructed. He had no profound philosophical theory to 
maintain, but his simple and sincere utterances magnetized his 
hearers. He was also an affectionate and indefatigable pastor, full 
of kind sympathies and liked by old and young, though his solemn 
warnings were not always acceptable to youthful gayety. The fruits 
of his work soon began to appear. Ten persons were added to the 
church during the nine months that remained of 1829, including 
the Attorney General of the State, the Honorable George Sullivan. 
The soundness of his conversion was evidenced by the fact that, 
while during his previous life he had often yielded to the heredi- 
tary vice of his race by becoming profane when excited or irritated, 
he was never known to swear after uniting with the church. In 
1830 there were eighty- three accessions, most of them on confes- 
sion of faith. In 1831 there were forty-two additions ; in 1832, 
eighteen; in 1833, ten; in 1834, twenty-one. The majority of 
the converts were women, but many men were secured to our 
membership, who for years afterward were liberal and intelligent 
supporters of the church. It is noteworthy that a large percentage 
of the male converts were full grown men, not children from the 



104 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

Sunday school. Mr. James Odlin was thirty-eight years of age ; 
Esquire John Kimball, a noted surveyor, and father of our Mr. 
John H. Kimball, was fifty-nine. Both these gentlemen brought 
their wives with them. Freese Dearborn was fifty-one, and his 
wife fifty, when they made joint profession. James Folsom was 
forty-five when he joined the church and his wife accompanied 
him; his brother Josiah united at thirty-seven; Thomas Lovering 
was thirty-eight ; James Rundlett was twenty-six. His wife, our 
oldest living member, came into the church in Mr. Rowland's last 
year as Miss Eliza Ann Lord. 

During the last two years of Mr. Smith's ministry, the accessions 
dwindled to five and seven respectively, showing, perhaps, that the 
impressible elements of his congregation had all been gathered in. 
He was much liked and respected by his people, but he apparently 
felt that a change would be better for him and them, and early in 
1838 announced his acceptance of a tract society agency. He was 
dismissed at his own request, February 14, 1838. He had baptized 
one hundred and thirty-nine persons, infants and adults, and had 
admitted one hundred and eighty to the church — that is sixty- two 
more in nine years, than had Mr. Rowland in thirty-eight years. 
After about ten years' absence from the state, Mr. Smith returned 
to be installed at Kingston, July 26, 1848, and dismissed, Sep- 
tember 18, 1850. He resigned to settle at York, Me., but in a few 
years returned to his native state to pass his remaining days in 
pleasant retirement furnished by his sons, born in Exeter, who had 
become wealthy citizens of New York. He died February 20, 
1874. About the time of his going to Kingston, he preached to his 
former people. The church was crowded, and all were interested 
to see and hear their old pastor once more. He was greeted with 
much warmth, as he always was when he came over from Kingston. 
His pastorate is still recalled by the few who remember it as a 
golden period, when the church was filled with new converts, when 
its outward activities had the flavor of novelty, and when the 
spiritual wastes of a generation past were blossoming with the 
growths of a new life. 

Up to Mr. Smith's coming, the church had no place for prayer 
meetings and no convenient accommodations for a Sunday school. 



THE CHURCH'S HISTORY. IO5 

This was while our present auditorium was still a two story affair 
with a great surrounding gallery. Accordingly several gentlemen, 
in and out of the parish, united soon after Mr. Smith's coming in 
erecting the building on parsonage ground, which now constitutes 
the double dwelling of Mrs. Byington and Mr. Yroom.* It was 
two stories in height, and was used as a young ladies' school during 
week days, for the Friday night prayer meeting, and for Sunday 
school purposes. Before its erection, prayer meetings were held in 
private houses, and the parish meetings for many years in the court 
house. After the removal of the old court house, burned in 1841, 
to Court street, the parish met in the vestry until the lecture room 
was constructed in 1838. The vestry was subsequently sold to a 
syndicate, which used it for school purposes. It was then bought 
by the parish, and was the subject of many votes between 1868 
and 1872. It was finally converted into its present form, at the 
cost of a debt of $2,800, long a burden, but happily paid off more 
than ten years ago. 

Up to 1815-20, the church edifice was never warmed. Stoves 
were then introduced, as in other places, against considerable op- 
position. People generally acquiesced in the maintenance of a 
freezing temperature, though the following article in a warrant of 
1780, during Mr. Mansfield's pastorate, shows that there were some 
complainants. 

"To see if the Parishoners, when met, will pass a vote that the Rev'd 
Mr. Mansfield shall not read a Portion of Scripturs at the Beginning of 
service on Sundays, or Else Expound what he Reads, by the reason that of the 
inhabitants Living very remote and in Cold weather: it being very tedious to 
set in the Cold, not that we Despise the Gospel or Scripture, but we can set by 
our own fires & read [or] Cause it to be Read in our own houses as well to 
our understanding as to Sit in the Cold Except he Explains what he Reads." 

No action was taken on this petition, which was probably in- 
tended as a hint. In Mr. Smith's day, big stoves, with long funnels, 
were in use. 

* The vestry was divided into twenty-seven shares, valued at $14.21 each. The subscribers 
were, Sherburn Blake, six shares; N. Gilman, Jr., six; William Perry, three; Theodore 
Moses, two; J. T. Burnham, Joseph Boardman, Josiah G. Smith, William Odlin, Peter Chad- 
wick, John Rogers, Theodore B. Moses, Robert and Henry Shute, George Sullivan and 
Francis Grant, one each. 



106 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

Never was a minister greeted more cordially and hopefully than 
the Rev. William Williams, who was installed May 31, 1838. His 
salary was larger than that of any of his predecessors and of one or 
two of his immediate successors, being $800 and the use of the 
parsonage. Mr. Williams in his acceptance expressed forebodings 
of coming disappointment, which were sadly fulfilled. His pastor- 
ate, after a very successful first year or two, became very stormy 
and finally ended in his dismissal October 1, 1842. It would be 
useless and worse to enter upon the details of a controversy which 
ended in the secession of about twenty members, several of them 
prominent, to the Second church. There were faults on both 
sides, as is almost always the case, but it is only fair to say that Mr. 
Williams was of a very arbitrary disposition, had had troubles in 
former settlements, and, as I was a few years ago told by one of 
his relatives, there was insanity in his family. Setting aside some 
peculiarities, which were probably inherited, he was a preacher of 
rare ability and a man of a great deal of magnetism. He was born 
in 1797, was a graduate of Yale College, and like Mr. Rowland, 
Mr. Smith, Mr. Fairchild, Mr. Barrows and Mr. Byington, was a 
native of Connecticut ; and like all, except Mr. Rowland, who was 
a Dartmouth man, and Mr. Barrows, who was an alumnus of 
Amherst, a graduate of Yale College. After leaving Exeter, Mr. 
Williams became a physician at Salem, Mass., and died in i860, 
from blood poisoning caused by a cut from his razor. 

A New Auditorium. 

Before continuing to trace the pastoral succession, it will be well 
to refer to a change, much desired by Mr. Smith, but which was 
not carried out until the beginning of Mr. Williams's ministry — the 
remodelling of the interior of the church edifice, which was one 
of the conditions of his acceptance. The room with its high roof 
and big and nearly empty gallery was, he said, too much for his 
throat. The people, who had suffered from imperfect warming, 
were generally favorable. The old church, which a few of us re- 
member, was arranged much like its two galleried predecessor. 
The principal pews, square and unpainted, but mellowed by time 
into a rich brown hue, ran close to the walls, while the less stately 



THE CHURCH'S HISTORY. IO7 

"slips" filled the middle of the floor. The pulpit was a "three 
decker," painted white to match the sounding board, now hung 
below, which had been taken down at the period of my earliest 
recollections. The pulpit stood just in front of the wall pew in 
which the Misses Bell now sit, being backed by the handsome 
arched window invisible from within, but still to be seen out of 
doors on the rear of the church building. 

The alterations began in July, 1838, and were chiefly made by 
James and Josiah Folsom, sons of the master builder of 179S, and 
kinsmen, if not direct descendants of the earlier master builder of 
1 73 1. In all these erections and changes, the Folsoms showed 
themselves "cunning workmen," much like the scriptural Bezaleel. 
The old auditorium, whose acoustic difficulties were a leading cause 
of Mr. Smith's resignation, was last occupied on July 4th, when 
Judge Jeremiah Smith delivered his oration in commemoration of 
the two hundredth anniversary of the settlement of the town. On 
the 8th, the Second parish cordially invited the First church to 
worship with it while repairs were going on, suggesting as an 
alternative its willingness to give independent occupation of its 
house to our people on alternate Sundays. This courteous action 
was met in the same spirit, and the First church and parish "voted 
unanimously that this society entertain a high sense of the 
Christian civility tendered them by the Rev. Mr. Hurd's society, 
as contained in their resolution and vote, and that they accept 
their first proposition to unite with them in their house in the 
public duties of the Sabbath, during the time our house is under- 
going repairs." A few weeks later, when the pews had been de- 
molished and the upper floor laid, but while all else was still 
incomplete, the church was occupied for another secular purpose, 
viz. : The celebration of the completion of Dr. Abbot's fifty years 
of service as Principal of the Phillips Exeter Academy. There was 
a grand banquet over which Daniel Webster presided, and the pro- 
ceedings were convivial as well as literary. Quite a number of the 
larger boys of the town invaded the premises after the feast was 
over, and some of them became considerably elated by tasting too 
freely of the leavings of the punch served by the illustrious banquet- 
ers. Such a use of a church building would not now be tolerated in 



108 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

any community, but our fathers attached little sacredness to their 
places of worship ; meeting houses were often court houses. The 
legislature was in session in the predecessor of the present house, 
when the famous paper money mob of 1786 endeavored to over- 
awe the members. In 1833, when the noted Cilley will case was 
on trial, and a multitude wanted to listen to the opposing argu- 
ments of Daniel Webster and Jeremiah Mason, the court adjourned 
from the court house to avail themselves of the larger accommoda- 
tions offered by our present church building. Indeed, nobody but 
Roman Catholics and Episcopalians called their houses of worship 
churches. Our ancestors contended that ecclesia, the Greek word 
for church, always meant the assembly, and not the building. Old 
advertisements always spoke of Mr. Smith's or Mr. Hurd's meeting 
house. After our alterations were completed, however, it was voted 
that the auditorium for Sunday worship should be used for religious 
gatherings only, while the lecture room below should be let for any 
commendable purpose, and in it lyceum lectures were delivered 
for many winters, and the Democratic new departure in the direc- 
tion of anti-slavery was held within its walls in 1845. The new 
room was thought to be very elegant. The pews were painted pea 
green inside, and the unpainted walls and ceiling were hard finished 
plaster. The pews had doors, afterwards removed, and they were 
numbered with gilt letters, on black Japanned tin plates. There 
was no uniformity of pew cushions or carpets, each owner exercis- 
ing his own taste. 

New hymn books were introduced, Lowell Mason's Church 
Psalmody superseding Watts' and Select Hymns. The book 
chosen was one of the worst products of hymn tinkering ever 
published. There was no congregational singing, but in place of 
this there were fine choirs in those days, and paid singers were rare 
exceptions until later years, when others beside leaders were paid. 
The Hall family through three generations was famous for its musi- 
cal powers, as had been that of Deacon Josiah Folsom, until all his 
handsome and agreeable daughters were married off, a process 
completed about the time of the alteration. Their sister, Mrs. John 
T. Gordon, and their brother, Josiah Henry, still remained. Mr. 
Henry R. Hall, a man of fine presence, and a magnificent voice, 



the church's history. 109 

was long a leader. Until an organ was bought, about eight wars 
later, instrumental music was supplied by Messrs. Kinsley Hall, 
John C. Gerrish and others. There was good singing in those 
days, but space and memory would fail me if I were to add to 
Messrs. L. M. Dow and Joseph S. Robinson, the latter almost a 
son of thunder in vocal strength, the succession of those who 
made melody, and to whom all the congregation turned their 
faces before the last afternoon hymn. In those days in the fore- 
noon only a prayer and benediction followed the pastor's sermon. 

Before the church was remodelled, nearly all the pew holders re- 
linquished their property to the parish. About sixteen declined to 
do so, and a committee of gentlemen not belonging to the parish 
appraised the value of their pews, and they were duly compensated. 
When the new pews came to be sold, the now almost empty wing 
pews, known to our Methodist brethren as the "Amen Corner," 
found a ready sale. There were some large families to whom the 
exceptional length of these pews seemed a special advantage. 
They are now more than half deserted, yet in 1838 Mr. Joshua 
Getchell paid the third highest price of any pew sold, and chose 
the location he specially desired just at the head of the north aisle. 
Tastes have changed in sixty years, not only in regard to wing 
pews, but to those in the body of the church. The chief seats in 
the synagogue were those near, but not quite up to the pulpit. 
The first and second choices went to Mr. Thomas Moulton and 
Mr. John Gardner, the latter buying two pews directly opposite to 
each other two thirds up on the central aisle, so as to accommodate 
his son's family. But I must not attempt to catalogue pew holders, 
for I should surely make some mistakes and be guilty of unpardon- 
able omissions. It is enough to say that nearly every pew was 
owned and occupied twice on a Sunday, the afternoon services 
being a little better attended than those of the morning. Some of 
the well-to-do brethren bought three or four pews to encourage the 
sale. 

In course of time various improvements were made in the inte- 
rior. The walls and ceiling were frescoed, and plated numbers 
replaced the tin ones. An organ was bought in 1846 at a cost of 
$575, all but $S$ of which was promptly paid, and the remainder 



IIO THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

after a reasonable interval. In 1868-69 measures were taken for 
further repairs and improvements, and up to April 4, 1870, the 
sum of $1,196.60 had been expended. On Mr. Byington's first 
coming he took a house on Lincoln street, the parsonage having 
been let. As soon as it was empty, in 1872, it was repaired, or 
rather remodelled, at a cost of over $4,000. The church build- 
ing had also been slated. 

In January, 1875, on a Sunday morning, the church took fire 
and narrowly escaped destruction. The repairs thus necessitated 
caused an expenditure of $1,172.24, which was raised by subscrip- 
tion. 

A clock with four faces was placed in the tower by the town, 
after a vote in 1848, authorizing it, on the condition that the clock 
be kept in perfect order and all damages be repaired at public 
expense. 

In 1858 it was voted in parish meeting that the deacons be re- 
quested to retain one dollar from monthly concert collections for 
missions to pay for wood and lights. This little piece of economy is 
strikingly in contrast with the generous expenditure in other quar- 
ters. 

In 1896, the tower, first thrown out of the perpendicular in 
18 1 5 in a great gale, and afterward more warped by the jarrings of 
the daily bell ringing, was straightened at an expense of over 
$1,500. 

Our Later Pastors. 

The contentions over Mr. Williams were a heavy strain on the 
church, and a long rest seemed needed for the subsidence of the 
excitement which the discussion had occasioned, but new trouble 
awaited our people, though of a different kind. The Rev. Joy 
Hamlet Fairchild, who was installed September 20, 1843, and 
whose short labors were crowned with much success, was early in 
1844 openly charged with gross immorality during a former 
ministry. He at once resigned, was tried and convicted by a 
council of Massachusetts ministers, in whose jurisdiction the alleged 
offence had been committed. He then appealed to the civil 
courts and was tried and acquitted. Public sentiment was divided 



THE CHURCH S HISTORY. I I I 

in the case, though most of his Exeter people doubted his guilt. 
He is certainly entitled to the intermediate Scotch verdict of "not 
proven." He died February 21, 1859, aged about 70. 

Mr. Fairchild was succeeded, November 19, 1845, by the Rev. 
Roswell Dwight Hitchcock, born in Machias, Maine, August 15, 
181 7, and a graduate of Amherst College. He was an exception- 
ally able, and sometimes brilliant preacher, and his subsequent 
career as professor at Bowdoin College and president of the Cnion 
Theological Seminary is familiar to all. His pastorate in Exeter 
lasted until July 7, 1852, and was interrupted by a year spent in 
Europe in 1847-8. He was a slow and painstaking writer, and 
many of the sermons which he delivered as a supply in New York 
were his Exeter ones, remodelled perhaps, but in structure the 
same. He exchanged a good deal and was not fond of pastoral 
work, but his people were proud of his reputation for scholarship. 
He died June 17, 1887, on the same day as his successor, the Rev. 
Elias Nason. 

The Rev. William Downs Hitchcock, no relative of his prede- 
cessor, a native of Yermont, and, if I recollect rightly, a graduate 
of Middlebury College, was ordained October 5, 1853, and died of 
typhoid fever, November 23, 1854. He lacked the scholarly at- 
tainments, and probably the talent of Roswell 1). Hitchcock, but 
his short ministry gave good promise. There was unusual religious 
interest among some of the younger members of the congregation 
during the summer of 1854. The parish paid Mr. Hitchcock's 
funeral expenses, erected a stone to his memory in the new 
cemetery, and paid his widow a quarter's salary. He left no 
children. 

The Rev. Nathaniel Lasell, born in Schoharie County, N. Y., 
February 14, 1820, was our next pastor. He was a graduate of 
Williams College, and of Presbyterian antecedents. His ministry 
lasted from June 19, 1856, to June 12, 1859, and was quiet and 
harmonious. It covered the revival period of 1858, and the acces- 
sions to the church were larger than they had been since the ear- 
lier years of Mr. Smith. Forty-five persons were added to the 
church between 1857 and 1859, mostly by profession. Mr. 
Lasell's withdrawal was at his own instance. He died in 1880, at 
Amesbury, Mass., on the sixtieth anniversary of his birth. 



112 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

The Rev. Elias Nason, a graduate of Brown University, was 
installed November 22, i860. He was dismissed May 30, 1865, 
just thirty years previous to the death of his successor Mr. Bying- 
ton, and died at Billerica, Mass., June 17, 1SS7, as we have seen, 
on the same day as Dr. R. D. Hitchcock. Mr. Nason interested 
all his hearers, was a genial and companionable man and noted as an 
antiquarian. He was much liked during the earlier years of his 
pastorate, but some of his people having become disaffected, he 
resigned, and though asked to do so, refused to withdraw his resig- 
nation. Thirty-one were added to the church during his pastorate.* 

The next pastor, the Rev. John Otis Barrows, was a native of 
Mansfield, Conn., a graduate of Amherst and formerly pastor at 
North Hampton, whence he came to Exeter. His pastorate began 
December 5, 1S66, and ended October 6, 1869, at his own request, 
that he might enter the foreign mission field in Turkey. Returning 
to this country on account of ill health of his wife, he is now settled 
at Stonington, Conn. Seventeen were received into the church 
during his ministry. Of all the sixteen pastors who have preceded 
the Rev. W. L. Anderson, Mr. Barrows is the only survivor and as 
such warmly welcomed at our commemoration. 

The year and five months, which intervened between the dismis- 
sal of Mr. Lasell and the installation of Mr. Nason was exceeded 
by the interval between the retirement of Mr. Barrows and the 
coming of the Rev. Swift Byington, born at Bristol, Conn., Feb- 
ruary 4, 1825, and a graduate of Yale in 1S47. He was installed 
June 2, 1 87 1, just eighty-one years to a day after Mr. Rowland. 
During the long period between 1869 and 187 1 our people 
exhausted all the arts, and experienced all the weariness of the 
wretched system of candidating, on the principle that no candidate 
is to be accepted unless every individual's preference is fully met. 
Mr. Byington was not one of the competitors, but was sought out 
in his pastorate at Stoneham, Mass., and brought to the notice of 
the church and parish by a few leading members, some of whom 
had asked him to come to Exeter in 1855. His letter of declina- 
tion on that occasion was so original and characteristic as to 
demand reproduction in full, though to save time and space, I have 

* Mr. Nason was a scholarly and patriotic man, ami versed in local and antiquarian history. 



the church's history. 113 

merely called attention to an occasional passage in one or more of 
the many pastoral missives of the past century. Mr. Uyington at 
the time of writing was only thirty years old, and was already enjoy- 
ing the reputation as a gifted sermonizer which he retained until 
his death : 

WEST BrOOKFIELD, MASS., January 1, 1S56. 

To the First Congregational Church and Society, Exeter, X. II. 

I have given to your trustful invitation, extended, and I hope thorough con- 
sideration. The subject reduces itself to this one question: Shall I choose 
what is agreeable or what is duty? You offer me what amounts to 1200 dollars 
a year with vacation earnings, or 400 dollars more than I now have. I have 
no vacation here. The work would be no harder than I make my work lure. 
There are many more local attractions in Exeter, which I need not detail. 
The people — I should not expect to find the like, on all accounts, anywhere 
else. But my people would be, in their condition just now, broken to pieces. 
They depend greatly on my poor services; they cannot spare me, and I can do 
more good here, as things now are, than in Exeter. .Many men will readily 
go to you; not many good men would come here. The ministers, whom I 
have consulted here and elsewhere, are against my going. All things 
considered, in spite of so many allurements to go to you, duty sternly says, 
stay here. 

You may be assured that I regret as much, and probably more than you, to 
give up so noble a prospect, but it will not harm you, I hope, to have waited. 
Spare me a place always in your kind remembrances, and believe me, with 
much respect and gratitude, most truly yours in the great cause we love, 

Swift Byington. 

The manliness displayed in this letter was a characteristic of his 
entire ministry, which was harmonious, with an admiring and 
attached congregation for about twenty years. When that period 
was completed in 1891, the event was duly celebrated, for no 
pastor since Mr. Rowland had served half that time. Soon after 
the celebration, Mr. Byington's health began to fail, and though he 
speedily rallied from the first attack, the existence of cerebral 
trouble became obvious. Assistants were employed and a long rest 
was granted him, but finding recovery hopeless, he resigned his 
ministry April 2, 1893. The resignation was accepted with resolu- 
tions expressing the deep sympathy of the society for his affliction, 
and offering the use of a house belonging to the parish and adjoin- 
ing the parsonage, for the joint lives of himself and wife, with the 



114 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

addition that he need not vacate the parsonage until it was needed 
by his successor. The remainder of Mr. byington's life, which 
ended May 30, 1895, was spent in retirement. His strength 
gradually declined, but he was cheered by the sympathy of his 
people to the last. During his pastorate about one hundred and 
forty persons were admitted to the church, most of them on con- 
fession. About thirty of the whole number came in after the Mills 
meetings in 1887, and the next largest number during a period of 
exceptional interest in [874. During Mr. Byington's illness the 
pulpit was supplied by E. II. Byington, I). I)., and later by the Rev. 
W. 1). Leland. 

Soon after Mr. Byington's resignation, viz., in May, 1893, the 
Rev. Wilbert Lee Anderson was invited to preach and administer 
the communion. He was so well liked as to be asked to come 
again. After filling the pulpit for two or three Sundays, the church 
and parish invited him, with great unanimity, to supply the pulpit 
until the parish meeting in April, 1894. Before that period arrived 
he was unanimously called to the permanent pastorate, and in- 
stalled February 15, 1894. Mr. Anderson is a native of East 
Berkshire, Vt., and a graduate of Oberlin College. He has been 
previously settled at Stowe, Vt., and Muskegon, Mich., and can 
well afford to be judged by his works in his present position. All 
his people feel that to his energy and judicial ability the present 
occasion will owe much of any success that it may have. The 
situation and outlook of church and parish are very encouraging 
and the pastor's share in this is gratefully recognized. 

Deacons and Sunday School. 

The earliest deacon of whom we know anything was John Fol- 
som, who died early in 1 7 1 5 . Whether he entered upon office 
before or after the reorganization of 1698 is uncertain. He was 
born in 1641. No doubt, some of the Rev. John Odlin's deacons 
seceded in 1743, but a Mr. Wilson, first name unknown, was still 
in office in that year. Samuel Fogg was elected April 3, 1746, 
and was in office about half a century, perhaps a few years more, 
but the date of his death is unknown. John Odlin, the pastor's 
oldest son, was made a deacon September 4th, 1747, and remained 



the church's his torv. 115 

in office until his death in 1782. Samuel Brooks served from 
November 6, 1766, to his death in March, 1807. Next in order 
was Samuel Oilman, elected April 27, 18 10, and died August 27, 
1S38, aged 86. During his late years he was very deaf and sat in 
the tall pulpit, using a large ear trumpet. Josiah Folsom, who 
lived in the house, now owned by Mr. Hunnewell on the Hampton 
road, where his father, who died at 95 in 1820, had lived before 
him, was elected April 3, 181 2. He and his associate, Oliver W. 
Osborne, chosen January 19, 1832, seceded after the resignation of 
Mr. Williams. Deacons William Perry and Sherburn Blake, elected 
on the same day as Mr. Osborne, retained their positions, at least 
nominally in the case uf the first named, until their deaths. I >ea- 
con Blake died October 25, 1847, aged 74, and his colleague Jan- 
uary ir, 18S7, aged 9S years, 22 days. Benjamin Cordon and 
William L. Oooch were both elected July 7, 1S46. Deacon Cor- 
don died May 23, 1866, aged 6S, and Deacon Gooch served until 
September, 1895, a period of 49 years. His age was 79. William 
P. Moulton and Thomas E. Folsom were chosen July 3, 1S66. 
Deacon Moulton died March 5, 1888, aged 67, and Deacon Fol- 
som October 8, 1892, aged 73. Matthew S. Pike was elected 
March 1, 18S8, and died September 2S, 1S89. He was the first 
deacon to be elected to fill a specified term — seven years. Joseph 
W. Merrill was chosen to occupy the vacancy, and is serving on a 
second term of five years. Charles E. Smith was elected successor 
to Deacon Oooch and is still in office. 

Robert Raikes, of England, has the credit in public estimation 
of having founded Sunday schools, late in the last century. He cer- 
tainly gave the work a powerful impetus, though his plan was to 
collect ragged children from the streets and have them instructed 
on Sundays by paid teachers, something quite different in detail, 
yet akin in spirit to the modern system. Yet there were Sunday 
schools for youths among the Oodly German settlers of eastern 
Pennsylvania not far from 1750. In Exeter, Deacon John F. 
Moses started a Sunday school in connection with the Baptist 
church in 18 17. It has had a continuous existence to this day. 
If he was first in the field, which is quite likely, since few men have 
been more active in the Master's work than he, other schools very 



Il6 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

speedily followed. The Exeter Watch/nan of May 5, 1818, con- 
tains the following : "A friend to Sunday schools would express his 
satisfaction of learning that two schools were opened in this place 
on the last Sabbath, and that they were numerously attended. * * 
It is hoped that the good examples of the last Sabbath will very 
shortly be imitated in all the school districts of the town." 

One of these schools may have been that belonging to this 
church. At that date there were only three churches — the Baptist 
and the two Congregational, though the last two may have begun 
earlier, and the schools noticed in the above paragraph have been 
private and approved enterprises. It can only be said with cer- 
tainty that our school was founded about 181 7 or 1818. The fol- 
lowing list of superintendents is chronological, but defective as 
regards the earlier incumbents : John T. Burnham, Woodbridge 
Odlin, Amos Tuck, Stephen H. Piper, Stephen Badger, Jr., Deacon 
W. L. Gooch, William P. Moulton, Dr. E. P. Cummings, Charles 
James, Charles E. Lane, J. W. Gale, Sperry French, Capt. J. C. 
Dutch, J. W. Merrill, Jr., Charles H. Knight, H. P. Robinson, A. 
T. Dudley, S. G. Morse, E. F. Bottger, W. E. Merrill and Albert 
N. Dow. 

A Christian Endeavor society was organized in 1886, and a jun- 
ior branch of the same in 1892. 

Benefactions. 

All along in their history the church and the parish have had 
large and generous givers, and it may be, as in the case of the 
widow's mite, many a humble and most self sacrificing contribution. 
There may be churches which have made more of a specialty in 
their support of missions and other outside objects, but few, I think, 
have surpassed ours in all around liberality. First in order of our 
large givers, was Mr. John Rice, who in 1778, in the midst of the 
Revolutionary war, gave us a parsonage and lot and farm land, 
then of much more relative value than now. Good old Mr. 
Thomas Moulton in 185 1 bequeathed us the $400, now in the form 
of Boston and Maine stock, worth much more money. In 1870, 
Mr. Woodbridge Odlin gave the parish its iron fence, at a cost, if I 
am not misinformed, of $Soo or thereabouts, and a year or two 



the church s history. 117 

later he was thanked by vote of the parish for other generous gifts. 
He had always been a liberal supporter of all the interests of the 
church, and his later contributions were the more significant as he 
was then attending another church. At his death in 1879, he left 
$2,000 to be given to the churches if they united within ten years. 
They did not. 

The Merrills, father and sons, may be termed annual benefactors, 
so regular and liberal were their contributions to church and parish 
uses for many years, that is to say as long as they lived. The first 
to leave special post-mortem bequests was ("harks A. Merrill, who 
left in his last will in 1S86, $2,000, the interest of which was to be 
devoted forever to the support of preaching, and $2,500 to pur- 
chase the organ which still guides our songs of worship. In 1S97, 
Dr. Abner I.. Merrill, for many years a resident of Boston, who 
had in various ways, and notably by the placing of a stone tablet 
on the front of the church, recording the dates of its origin, organi- 
zation, etc., shown his care for the place where his parents wor- 
shipped, added a gift of $1,000 in memory of the past, and of his 
lately deceased brother, Henry R. Merrill, of Boston, the interest 
thereof to be devoted to the support of preaching. On October 
14, 1898, Dr. Merrill made still another gift in the form of bonds 
to the amount of $2,000, as a special memorial of his father and 
mother, whose Christian example he believed to have been of 
special help and encouragement to their children. 

In 1897, Mrs. Rebecca (Woodman) Page, widow of the late 
James G. Page, bequeathed $300 to aid in supporting the services 
of the church, which sum has been properly invested. 

In 1 83 1 the parish gave the Oranite Bank, adjacent to the 
church, a virtually perpetual right of way through its yard to the 
rear of the bank premises, on a payment of $100 and a nominal 
rent. The syndicate, composed of members of the parish, which 
now owns the bank property, surrendered this lease to the parish 
as its contribution to the bicentennial celebration. 

It is difficult to select a few names from a long catalogue of 
worthies — not seventeenth or eighteenth century men and women, 
but those who have been prominent since the events of 1838, and 
are still remembered by our older members. In choosing, omis- 



I 1 8 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

sions will inevitably occur, and humble and little known persons of 
both sexes may rank higher in the spiritual standard than those 
who are mentioned. My choice may not always be the best that 
could be made, and I may forget what I ought to remember, but I 
shall do my best. First come the generous supporters, usually with 
families that overflowed their pews. There was Abner Merrill, of 
whom I shall speak a little later, occupying with his wife, daughter 
and many sons, at least two pews ; James Folsom with a household 
about balancing in numbers that of the patriarch Jacob, and his 
brother Josiah with sons and daughters ; the Sullivan family ; the 
Odlin brothers, James, William, Benjamin and Woodbridge ; Dea- 
con Sherburn Blake, called from his prominence in the town 
where his earlier years were spent, the Duke of Raymond, always 
accompanied to worship by nearly a dozen children and grand chil- 
dren ; the big Kimball and Robinson families, which filled opposite 
corners on either side of the pulpit ; Joshua Getchell, always a liberal 
supporter of church and parish ; Mr. Thomas Moulton, an aged 
member, strong and eloquent in prayer, in spite of occasional rhetor- 
ical lapses ; the two generations of Gardners ; the Hon. James Bell's 
never empty pew. These and a few others specially rise up in my 
memory. I shall not enumerate those who left us in 1843, though 
some of them are well worthy of commemoration, but I will pass to 
a few other names. Deacon Benjamin Gordon was a worthy shoe- 
maker of the old fashioned integrity. I once called at his little shop, 
when on a visit from the west, to sew a tear in my shoe, and waited 
until the work was done. Asking the price, he replied with evident 
compunction that he must charge nine cents, as the price of thread 
had advanced. Most of his craft would have thought a quarter of 
a dollar ridiculously low ; John T. Burnham, of stalwart form, 
prized by his townsmen as a school-master when people generally 
acted on the Solomonic injunction, "foolishness is bound in the 
heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from 
him." Joseph Boardman, who, with all his family, have joined the 
church above ; Benjamin Lang, who, though not a church member, 
manifested more than human grace in the splendid patience with 
which he bore protracted family affliction of the most trying kind ; 
Deacon Thomas Folsom, one of those genuinely good men, whom 



THE CHURCH S HISTORY. I 19 

neither rain nor shine could keep from week evening meetings; 
Freese Dearborn, as grim of countenance as his first name would 
seem to imply, one of the seceders of 1S03 to the New parish, but 
later a convert under the appeals of Mr. Smith — these are another 
catalogue gathered under no special rule. 

Sitting nearly together were the families of Josiah Folsom, John 
C. Gerrish and Henry Shute. There was Timothy Tilton, a fine 
frosty haired man six feet in height, long our faithful sexton; 
there was little Mr. John Kennedy, who fought as a British soldier 
in the West Indies ; Major Charles Parks, town bell ringer and one 
of Mr. Tilton's predecessors. Major Parks was the town's general 
factotum and as tithing man was long supplemented and at length 
succeeded by Abraham Towle, whose green spectacles were the 
terror of bad boys in the gallery and even in the pews. 

Of noble women there were not a few, but their almost stealthy 
way of doing good prevents one from even a general mention of 
their names. 

Later, the Rev. Mr. Cummings, John S. Wells, Joseph T. Por- 
ter, Samuel S. Thyng, Robert C. Thomson, John Bellows, John C. 
Dutch, William H. Robinson, came to prominence. Some of 
these have handed down the mantle of willing and effective service 
to their children. Of the living I may be excused from speaking, 
especially as I have been compelled to pass unnoticed many well 
worthy of mention, but some of these have been named elsewhere. 
It would be a delicate matter to me to become the critic or 
even the dry chronicler of my father's relations to the church 
and parish. Yet I feel that it would be false modesty to omit 
adding a few words to the occasional mentions of his name which 
have already appeared. Born in Norton, Mass., December 20, 
1788, Dr. William Perry came to Exeter, February 22, 1814, and 
soon after joined the First parish, uniting with the church in 
December, 181 7. Although the wife he married in 181 8 and the 
acquaintances whom he first made were nearly all connected with 
the New parish, he remained steadfast to his first choice. His first 
year's ecclesiastical tax was seventy-four cents, but it had grown 
tenfold when compulsory taxation ceased five years later. None 
who knew him are ignorant of the fact that he gave largely under 



120 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

the voluntary system, that he was at least as much interested in 
church affairs as in his chosen profession, and that he was promi- 
nent in settling several pastors, some of whom he afterward helped 
unsettle. He was a man of strong convictions and in many respects 
wise in his judgments. If arbitrary in some of his methods, he had 
a kindly and even tender heart, and was as much a spiritual as a 
physical helper to many of his patients. If he made mistakes, this 
is not the place to discuss them. 

A close friend in ecclesiastical matters and in other ways was the 
late Abner Merrill, who died in 1877, aged 86. He came to Exe- 
ter from Amesbury about the same time as Dr. Perry from Norton, 
joined the parish in 1816, and, with his wife, became a com- 
municant in 1 83 1. A man of few words, he gave and thought 
largely and wisely for the good of the church, and as we have 
already seen, left an example of liberality, which his children 
have not forgotten or failed to improve ; emphatically a clear headed 
man of business, his counsels and encouragement availed much for 
church and parish in troublous crises. These, and all those cata- 
logued with them have followed the majority of their pastors to the 
grave. 

I have now traced the fortunes of the First church in Exeter 
through sixteen pastorates, covering, for the period between Wheel- 
wright's arrival and Mr. Anderson's settlement, a space of 256 
years. I make no claim to have written a full history of the church 
through that long period. At best, I have only blazed a path 
through the woods, leaving vast spaces on either side still overgrown 
by the vegetation which grows up as time moves on and men for- 
get. I lay no claim to originality, for plain facts are matters of 
research, not of invention. I have merely endeavored to speak the 
simple truth. History has been styled philosophy teaching by ex- 
ample. I have submitted an array of facts from which the public 
can generalize as well as myself. I shall make no attempt to point 
a moral further than to say : 

First, that the woes denounced against those at ease in Zion are 
as likely to come at the dawn of the twentieth century as in the 
days of the Jewish theocracy. 

Secondly, that the liberty enjoyed under our Congregational sys- 



the church's history. 121 

tern should never be allowed to degenerate into the license of cen- 
soriousness and self assertion. 

Thirdly, that our most successful church life has not followed 
flights of oratory or the setting forth of profound philosophy, but 
has attended rather the plain enforcement of the vital truths of 
religion. 

Fourthly, that growing up and out of a town church, we have not 
sufficiently tightened the bonds of a close Christian fellowship. In 
this respect we hitherto have been placed at a disadvantage with 
more modern organizations, founded for a specific purpose, and 
stimulated by the necessity of hard work and personal sacrifice. 
" Know ye not that ye are brethren " is an admonition that should 
ring in all our ears. 

Ages ago Homer sang : 

" As is the race of leaves even such is the race of men. Some leaves the 

wind sheds upon the ground, but the fructifying wood produces others, and 
they grow up in the season of Spring. Such is the generation of men; one- 
produces and another ceases to be." 

Let us heed the lesson. The past is irrevocable. We cannot 
predict the future, but we can modify, if not shape it by serving 
well the present. Let us work while it is day, for the night is 
drawing nigh to all of us, wherein no man can work. So doing, 
with God's blessing, we shall not live in vain for ourselves, or for 
our dear old church. 



THE CLOSING ADDRESS. 

Delivered November 14, 1898, 

By Burton W. Lockhart, D. D. 



7'Jif Church and the Modern World. 

I HAVE chosen as a fitting theme for this occasion, The Church 
and the World, and I suppose I ought to begin by telling 
you what I mean by the church. I forewarn you that I shall give 
you a very catholic definition. I shall not exclude Greek or Cath- 
olic church. For although I believe the Congregational church 
approaches most closely to the simple, free, spiritual churches of 
Apostolic days, I am disposed to acknowledge the Christian idea 
in other churches as well. By the church, then, I mean that loving 
fellowship of men in God which refers to Jesus Christ as founder 
and supreme teacher. It is a loving fellowship, because its great 
aim is to bring peace and good will on earth. It is a fellowship in 
God, because the vision of the Father and faith in Him is the 
creative and welding power of the fellowship. It is a fellowship, 
because the spirit of Christianity is against isolation and selfish 
individualism. One man cannot constitute a church. The spirit- 
ual truth of the church has its seat in the individual spirit. In 
this sense the kingdom is love, joy, peace in the Holy Ghost. But 
the church is the fellowship of believers ; it is the household of 
God. 

There is a feeling abroad to-day that the church as an institu- 
tion may be neglected if only we keep its spirit. The transcenden- 
tal or idealist movement of thought in New England laid great 
stress on the idea, but tended to undervalue the embodiment of the 
idea. Thoreau, for example, despised the state so much that he 
would not pay the poll-tax. He had such a contempt for society 
and all its institutions that he dwelt like a hermit, wandering alone 



ADDRESS BY BURTON W. LOCKHART, D. D. 123 

like a rhinoceros, to use a Buddhist phrase. He was an extreme 
illustration of the tendency of that movement to idolize the idea, 
and underestimate institutions which embody the idea. And many 
good people to-day think they, too, can pass by the church door, 
and live in the spirit, and commune with the divine thought all the 
better for it. But a truer philosophy shows us that God's ideas 
are all embodied. The idea or soul creates a body for itself, and 
the body gives the idea or soul the necessary conditions of self- 
realization. The body without the soul is a corpse ; but the soul 
without the body is an abstraction. 

Neither on earth nor in heaven can a worthy idea be found which 
has not embodied or is not striving to embody itself. Ideal exis 
tence is only beginning. Substantial existence, embodied existence 
is the goal. The idea of the loving fellowship of men in God may 
have occurred to some of the great prophets. But though the 
greatest idea that ever entered the mind of man, greater than that 
of the state, which is the friendly fellowship of men under the sov- 
ereign conception of law, it was powerless until Christ gave it a body. 
Since then the actual fellowship has been surely changing society 
from a horde of warring persons into a household of God. And 
we live in a day when the church's voice is crying to all far-off 
wandering tribes that they are called to be no longer strangers and 
foreigners, but fellow-citizens of the saints and of the household of 
God. It is the church as a fellowship actualized, not as a fine 
idea, that we believe in, love and work for, and regard as eternal. 
For in heaven as on earth souls will forever exist in loving fellow- 
ship and in ( iod. 

It is the most noteworthy fact of history that the church of 
Christ has made the real life of the world now for a period of nearly 
nineteen centuries. Christ called the Kingdom in His time a mus- 
tard seed ; yet it grew until it spread over Europe. In the time of 
the Apostles it was but a little candle with how tremulous a light in 
that thick darkness of paganism ; yet it quickly became a beacon 
fire of hope, of inspiration and guidance to the leading races of the 
world. The church's conquest of paganism is the chief romance 
and miracle of all history. Gibbon tried to account for it on purely 
rationalistic principles. For example, he said that the Christians 



124 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

believed so firmly in immortality that they were willing to die, nay 
often anxious to die as a witness to the truth of the gospel. Con- 
sequently the repressive measures, usually sufficient to stamp out a 
noxious element, had no effect on them. But Gibbon does not ex- 
plain on naturalistic principles how there came into the world so 
new, so strong a faith in immortality, such a "magnificent disdain 
of death," as led simple hearts and bare hands to beat back the 
violence of a hostile world by endurance and courage, and to es- 
tablish a church against which the gates of hades, the forces of dis- 
solution which destroy races and creeds should not prevail. I defy 
anybody to explain it on those principles. Those men saw a divine 
vision, and dreamed a divine dream. The heavenly host was not 
hidden from their eyes, and the powers of the life to come girt 
them with strength. The difference between naturalism and super- 
naturalism is for practical purposes, thus : Naturalism asserts that 
there are no personalities in the universe above man ; supernatural- 
ism asserts that the universe is a hierarchy of personalities subsist- 
ing in the infinite personality, God. Between these two theories 
there is an abyss deeper than plummet ever sounded. It was the 
entrance with power into man's life of the supernatural that estab- 
lished the church, and it is the faith and vision of the supernatural 
that continues to be her life. As a mere school of ethics the church 
never could have taken root. As a mere school of ethics the 
church never could have assimilated races and cultures. As a 
mere school of ethics the church to-day is shorn of her characteris- 
tic strength. For the church lives on a supernatural foundation. 
She stakes her credit and her existence on the two truths that man 
is a spirit living in a universe of spirits — under the redemptive 
providence of an Infinite Father of Spirits. 

No less a truth than this can explain the stupendous influence of 
Christianity in history. When Augustine, the monk, landed on the 
shores of Kent he carried the divine fate of England in his hand. 
In the figure of the Puritan standing bold against the desert and 
the sky we see written the history of America, so far as it has been 
written, its sense for righteousness, its family virtue, its insistence 
on the rights of man, its bloody wars for liberty. The great poems 
of Christendom have been Iliads of the soul, sung by a Dante, a 



ADDRESS BY BURTON W. LOCKHART, D. D. 1 25 

Milton, a Tennyson. Architecture and painting went to the church 
for a theme and a soul. Music, which is the last born of the 
muses, and which (lowered in an age of negation, went to the eter- 
nal sources for her chief delight, to the Bible for her themes, to the 
soul immortal for her subject. Even war and diplomacy have 
eddied about the church. Napoleon at the height of his power 
made peace with the church of France. The iron hand of l'.is- 
marck in the now famous Cultur-kampf struck vainly against the 
Catholic church of Germany. It avails not that you use violence 
against the soul, for the soul is strengthened from inexhaustible 
sources. 

I come now to my main proposition, that the church is the 
world's friend and absolutely necessary to its welfare. I am aware 
of the maxim which exclaims with the Latin poet : O religion ! to 
what great evils hast thou been able to persuade men. But we 
must remember, as Mr. Mulford says, that Christianity is not one of 
the world religions — a cultus and a superstition ; but uniquely a reve- 
lation of the redemptive love of Cod. We must also admit that 
the church in history has done evil as well as good. No institution 
in the world can wholly escape corrupting influences. Hardly was 
the church established when ( ireek speculation imposed creeds 
upon her which were alien to the spirit of fellowship. Later 
Roman imperialism imposed a polity on her which was equally 
foreign to her feedom and fellowship. So, too, Jewish ecclesiasti- 
cism imposed a priesthood and a sacramental system that were 
hostile to her pure spirituality. Finally the state made her one of 
its own departments and degraded her to secular uses. Yet in 
spite of all this, the church was the one harbor of refuge for the 
poor and the oppressed during the thousand years of feudal wars. 

No more important event has happened to the modern church 
than her complete separation from the state. We remember that 
it was the church defying the state and attaining its own liberties, 
that fought the battles of political freedom in Holland and Scot- 
land ; that founded the Republic of America; established free 
schools ; broke the fetters of the slave ; abolished the injustice to 
women and children of old legislation. It is the free church, 
pulsing with the free life of Christ, that will gradually purify herself 



126 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

from old superstitions and spiritual tyrannies, and realize more 
perfectly than ever before the fellowship of men in love and in God. 
Only we must be patient. This will take time. We must re- 
member that the whole known history of our race is included 
within sixty life-times, and yet science predicts that the sun will 
sustain life on our planet for a hundred million years. Op- 
timism is right. But the faith that there are short cuts to welfare is 
wrong. The church will not be destroyed. She will become more 
and more simple and pure, and a more and more unmixed blessing 
to mankind. Meanwhile it is plain to see that she serves the world 
in three highly necessary functions. 

The church is necessary to the world, because the world, like the 
individual, needs a conscience, an oracle of God. The church is 
the conscience of society, and though by no means infallible, yet 
on questions of righteousness is apt to be right. Where she is 
wrong it will be found that the world has terrorized her into 
violence to the divine voice that whispers in her heart. 

Two years ago the political jingoes seemed bound to involve 
this nation in war with Great Britain over the Venezuela question. 
Some eminent senators said such a war was certain to come within 
a decade anyway. But the church proclaimed with one voice, 
"There can be, there must be no war over this question." When 
the peremptory message of President Gleveland reached England, 
on a Saturday, the churches of Great Britain, on the Sunday follow- 
ing, from highest prelate to obscurest minister cried out, "There can 
be, there must be no war over this question." And there was no 
war. The church, acting as the conscience of the nation, probably 
saved Anglo-Saxon civilization from a fratricidal strife that might 
have put back the wheels of progress a century. But when the 
question arose of a war with Spain, there was a difference. For the 
vision of a country murdered and starved, in the midst of which 
Rachel was crying for her children as of old, was not lightly to be 
put by. Not yet has the church adopted the policy of non-resist- 
ance, and the church was with the nation in demanding the 
liberation of Cuba. Thus twice within two years has the church 
acted as national conscience and her action has been sound. 

And just now what is the attitude of the church toward our new 



ADDRESS BY BURTON \V. LOCKHART, D. D. 127 

policy of imperialism ; a policy that involves the rule of subject 
peoples, and a large navy and army, and complication with the 
quarrels of Europe? The church is against that policy. For she 
clearly sees that the work of America is to done in this hemisphere, 
yes, on this continent, not with weapons of war, but with the peace- 
ful arms of morality and intelligence applied to the grave tasks of 
a free government. As the nation's conscience the church does 
not enter the realms of art, science and finance, except as these 
involve moral ideals. But like the Jewish prophets, she must speak 
the living word of God about justice and liberty. If she is great 
and brave enough to enable America to demonstrate to the world 
that the Republican form of government will work and abide the test 
of time, she will have established a new claim on men's gratitude. 
One hundred years' experimentation in self-government has taught 
us that success is a very simple question of moral fibre. Wisdom 
is needed. But all the genius of Ancient Athens, and the valor of 
Ancient Rome, without the righteousness of the Christian con- 
science, will not save this Republic from the forces of disunion and 
decay. 

The church is necessary to the world because of her teaching 
function and her body of truth. We have already come to see 
that it is not science that can save us. Let us not rail against 
knowledge, even when she teaches us how to kill, and loads us with 
costly tools for murder, and whips the toiler on to keep pace' with 
the march of invention. Truly as Tennyson said : 

On her forehead sits a fire. 

The knowledge of phenomena and their laws has created a new 
era for men, of lordship over things, but not lordship over the soul. 
We who know of gravitation, of electricity, of the indestructibility 
of matter, of the interconvertibility of forces, find it just as difficult 
as our fathers did to forgive, to live with a pure heart, and to die 
without fear. The man who feeds (all day long) a machine, finds 
it just as difficult as his fathers did to see the infinite value of life, 
and feel its wonder, and rejoice in its unfading bloom. For 
science deals with things, but religion deals with the soul, and 
alone possesses the key to life's high secret and its treasure of 



128 THE FIRST CHURCH IN EXETER. 

strength and peace. Therefore in the heart of Godless knowledge 
a canker grows and spreads into social institutions until it seems 
sometimes as if many aspects of our modern life were a hideous 
mechanism without a soul. 

No, it is not science, the knowledge of things, that can save us, 
we must know the Father, and the worst thing that could happen to 
America, this dear land where holy truth has fought so many bat- 
tles to victory, is not war, nor pestilence, nor the subversion of the 
Republic by a new autocracy. But the worst thing that could 
happen, the greatest conceivable loss would be the fading of the 
name and gospel of Christ out of the memory of men ; so that no 
mother should thenceforth teach her child to say, Our Father ; so 
that no preacher should point to that divine human life as every 
life's ideal ; so that no lover of peace and fellowship should ever be 
able to quote the words, "A new commandment I give unto you 
that ye love one another ;" so that no sinful man could ever see the 
face of the forgiving God through the kind eyes of the great brother ; 
so that no weary earth-pilgrim could fall on sleep with the words, 
"In my Father's house are many mansions ;" so that no sorrowing 
ears could hear with the fall of the clod on the coffin, the words, 
"I am the resurrection and the life." Yes, that would be the 
greatest calamity. Man does not live by bread alone, but by every 
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And the sufficing 
word, the word to the heart, the word to the highest reason, the 
word to the unchanging need of the world is Christ. 

The church is necessary to the world, because society needs a 
seminary for the training of souls in the principle of vicarious suf- 
fering. Society, as at present constituted, needs martyrs. Some 
must die that others may live ; mothers for their children, states- 
men for the welfare of the nation, missionaries for the salvation of 
souls. The church is the Lamb of God, constantly dying for the 
world, constantly providing a sacrifice, constantly bearing the sins 
and sorrows of the people on her heart. The severe and constant 
sacrifice of the noblest spirits for others has been sustained by the 
vision of God as cross-bearer, who carries the burden of us all, and 
walks with us to the perfect victory through the dark night and the 
heavy way. Thus far the missionary has never been wanted for the 



ADDRESS BY BURTON W. LOCKHART, D. D. 1 29 

loneliest venture in the most distant lands. Thus far we have 
never wanted statesmen who were willing to give their genius and 
life, like Sumner, to the task of national righteousness. Thus far we 
have not wanted teachers and preachers who wrought not for the 
penny but for the love of the Lord of Truth. Thus far we have not 
wanted holy mothers and fathers who counted their own life and 
welfare less dear than their children's. The list of the martyrs has 
grown very long, and out of their sacred melancholy has sprung the 
joy of the world. But take the great mother of vicarious suffering 
away and life would shrivel. The courage which drives a man to 
risk his life in battle is not the same courage which led Sumner to 
devote his genius to liberty and peace, or Livingstone to offer his 
life upon the altar of a dumb and forgotten continent. To die ! a 
tiger can do that. But to die for a wretched brother man requires 
something godlike in the victim. 

And whin I think of the church in this light all that is false in 
her past and commonplace in her present fades away. The wrangle 
of creeds and sects, I hear it no more. But I see before me only 
the grave mother of those great souls who have built up morals, 
education, liberty. And seeing her and her splendid sons, I take 
courage and say, "Why art thou cast down, my soul ! hope thou 
in God." The church is still the most glorious spectacle in this 
tumultuous world. Above her waves a banner of hope for human- 
ity, which has never been lowered since it was unfolded, and as we 
see the old flag float there, white as heaven in the dusk and smoke 
of the world, shall we not join that ancient profession of loyalty 
and cry, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget 
her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to 
the roof of my mouth ; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief 
joy." 






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